Waymo buys Apple's abandoned self-driving test track for $220M

The real estate transaction went through Delaware shell company Route 14 Investment Partner LLC, which everyone in the tech industry knows is just Apple wearing a trench coat. Waymo officially confirmed the purchase of this giant patch of Arizona dirt, which spans over 22 square kilometers of prime desert tarmac. It seems the iPhone makers got tired of paying property taxes on a giant, dusty ghost town.

This massive sandbox near Wittman, Arizona, instantly becomes Waymo’s largest testing playground, easily dwarfing their existing facilities in California and Ohio. The newly acquired property comes fully loaded with a dedicated vehicle dynamics area, a massive six-kilometer oval track, and its own simulated highway. It is the perfect place to teach robotaxis how to avoid crashing into things without pesky human drivers getting in the way.

Back in 2021, Apple bought the former Fiat Chrysler hot-weather testing ground for $125 million, hoping to build the ultimate autonomous iCar. Then, in early 2024, the tech giant famously pulled the plug on its automotive ambitions, leaving the desert track to gather tumbleweeds and regret. Waymo, on the other hand, is scaling up aggressively with a fleet of 4,000 vehicles and massive production deals to install their self-driving tech on cars from Zeekr and Hyundai.

It is a hilarious twist of tech-industry fate. Apple spent a decade throwing billions of dollars into a project that yielded absolutely nothing, only to sell the empty track to a rival who actually knows how to build self-driving cars. In the grand game of Silicon Valley chess, one giant's expensive tombstone becomes another's launchpad.

Source: TechCrunch