Codenames for Apple's 'Project Titan' car HQ borrow from Greek mythology: 'Rhea,' 'Athena' & 'Medus
A series of buildings in Sunnyvale, Calif., are ground zero for Apple's top secret "Project Titan" electric car project, and a new report reveals the codenames of some of the company's facilities in the area, including names like "Pegasus," "Aria," "Rhea" and "Corvinus."
Construction at Apple's Sunnyvale campus, as seen last year.
AppleInsider was first to reveal that Apple's automotive efforts were based out of a series of buildings located just minutes from Apple's corporate campus. It's there that Apple hid behind what is believed to be shell corporation with the name "SixtyEight Research," which it may have used to import parts and vehicles without arousing suspicion.
Digging further into Apple's expanded California presence, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported on Monday that many of the secretive buildings run by the company code-named after characters from Greek mythology, including the Titan Rhea, and ruler of the Olympian gods Zeus.
In classical Greek lore, Titans and Titanesses preceded the Olympians. They were the first 12 children of Mother Earth, Gaia, and Father Sky, Uranus.
"Rhea," in Sunnyvale, is perhaps the most interesting building. AppleInsider first reported in 2015 that the facility, known by street number "175," added a "repair garage" through improvements installed by Apple. According to city documents uncovered by the Journal, the building also includes a "lube bay," "wheel balancer," "tire changer," and wheel sensor."
"Rhea" is also where SixtyEight Research claimed to be headquartered. A company by the name of "SixtyEight LLC" imported a 1957 Fiat Multiplay 600 into the U.S. in November of 2014, and SixtyEight Research was listed as an attendee at the EuroCarbody 2015 Global Car Body Benchmarking Conference in November of 2015.
Not all of the buildings located in Sunnyvale are likely to be used for "Project Titan." For example, one AppleInsider source with knowledge of the company's structure previously revealed that much of the App Store review team works out of Sunnyvale, and is one of the primary occupants of Apple's largest Sunnyvale building cluster.
Meanwhile, in San Jose, the building code-named "Zeus" might suggest that it plays an important role at Apple. But exactly what is in the works at the 290,000-square-foot facility remains something of a mystery. Documents uncovered by the Journal reveal that an "interim lab" sized 25,000 feet will be located there, where just 15 employees will work.
Another building, said to be known as "Athena," is a former chip fabrication facility for Maxim Semiconductor. Given its past use, it's possible that Apple uses the facility to build custom silicon, like the A-series chips that power the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV.
Finally, Apple's building codenamed "Medusa" appears to host a number of interesting research projects, including a room dedicated to "eye tracking," a "vision lab," and another location for "cog. testing," potentially referring to cognition. The variety of projects there suggest it could be a multi-use facility related to a number of secretive Apple projects.
Paperwork filed with the city of Sunnyvale has readily admitted that Apple is testing systems for "high-end cars" at an "auto testing center." Though they help reveal the kind of work Apple is doing onsite, such permits are necessary for the kinds of building improvements Apple has invested in.
AppleInsider also discovered in February that a resident who lives near Apple's auto testing center filed a complaint with the city about late-night "motor noises" emanating from the facility.
"(Do) there have to (be) motor noises at 11:00 p.m. at night like last night?" the resident wrote to the city of Sunnyvale. "Even with the windows closed I could still hear it."
Construction at Apple's Sunnyvale campus, as seen last year.
AppleInsider was first to reveal that Apple's automotive efforts were based out of a series of buildings located just minutes from Apple's corporate campus. It's there that Apple hid behind what is believed to be shell corporation with the name "SixtyEight Research," which it may have used to import parts and vehicles without arousing suspicion.
'Rhea' is perhaps the most interesting building tied to 'Project Titan,' serving as the home of Apple's apparent shell corporation, 'SixtyEight Research'
Digging further into Apple's expanded California presence, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported on Monday that many of the secretive buildings run by the company code-named after characters from Greek mythology, including the Titan Rhea, and ruler of the Olympian gods Zeus.
In classical Greek lore, Titans and Titanesses preceded the Olympians. They were the first 12 children of Mother Earth, Gaia, and Father Sky, Uranus.
"Rhea," in Sunnyvale, is perhaps the most interesting building. AppleInsider first reported in 2015 that the facility, known by street number "175," added a "repair garage" through improvements installed by Apple. According to city documents uncovered by the Journal, the building also includes a "lube bay," "wheel balancer," "tire changer," and wheel sensor."
"Rhea" is also where SixtyEight Research claimed to be headquartered. A company by the name of "SixtyEight LLC" imported a 1957 Fiat Multiplay 600 into the U.S. in November of 2014, and SixtyEight Research was listed as an attendee at the EuroCarbody 2015 Global Car Body Benchmarking Conference in November of 2015.
Not all of the buildings located in Sunnyvale are likely to be used for "Project Titan." For example, one AppleInsider source with knowledge of the company's structure previously revealed that much of the App Store review team works out of Sunnyvale, and is one of the primary occupants of Apple's largest Sunnyvale building cluster.
Meanwhile, in San Jose, the building code-named "Zeus" might suggest that it plays an important role at Apple. But exactly what is in the works at the 290,000-square-foot facility remains something of a mystery. Documents uncovered by the Journal reveal that an "interim lab" sized 25,000 feet will be located there, where just 15 employees will work.
Another building, said to be known as "Athena," is a former chip fabrication facility for Maxim Semiconductor. Given its past use, it's possible that Apple uses the facility to build custom silicon, like the A-series chips that power the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV.
Finally, Apple's building codenamed "Medusa" appears to host a number of interesting research projects, including a room dedicated to "eye tracking," a "vision lab," and another location for "cog. testing," potentially referring to cognition. The variety of projects there suggest it could be a multi-use facility related to a number of secretive Apple projects.
Paperwork filed with the city of Sunnyvale has readily admitted that Apple is testing systems for "high-end cars" at an "auto testing center." Though they help reveal the kind of work Apple is doing onsite, such permits are necessary for the kinds of building improvements Apple has invested in.
AppleInsider also discovered in February that a resident who lives near Apple's auto testing center filed a complaint with the city about late-night "motor noises" emanating from the facility.
"(Do) there have to (be) motor noises at 11:00 p.m. at night like last night?" the resident wrote to the city of Sunnyvale. "Even with the windows closed I could still hear it."
Comments
Very curious about Apple's go to market strategy. Will they target only electric vehicles or combustion as well?
Every car maker supports CarPlay as an optional non-intrusive feature with advanced SIRI technologies.
Apple may try to replace QNX with iOS and offer object oriented methods for differentiation, but how much revenue will that bring?
Apple can partner with other car makers to offer Apple co-branded cars, but again, how much revenue?
Apple will ultimately need to build it's own vehicles and parts. Including smart carts and cars initially and eventually airplanes and spaceships.
Apple Maps will need advanced accurate and dynamic navigation methods.
Should Apple buy Tesla and/or Space X to speed things up?
well all electric engine don't, no. but for example the Chevrolet volt actually has a an ICE driving a generator that powers the electric motor
It's going to be totally off the charts insane! iPhone events aren't really that exciting, because so much is leaked beforehand. An Apple Car reveal is going to be off the hook, because surely Apple will be able to keep the details around that a secret at least. The names of a few buildings isn't going to tell anybody what the actual design of the car will end up looking like, and there might not even be any Asian factories involved in the car, which lessens the chances of any leaks. They're probably more than busy enough building iPhones and whatnots.
Hell, maybe the Apple Car will be manufactured and assembled in the US for the most part? Apple has already begun assembling Mac Pros in the US, and I think that the pressure is on American companies to bring more manufacturing back to the US.
The Apple Car is still probably a long way away, but I think that it's a good thing that Apple is trying to branch out, and why shouldn't they, as long as their core business isn't negatively impacted.
Apple should just try to make a great car, in my opinion. I don't think that they should be going for a budget price point. They should be aiming to make a great car. What if Apple could totally reinvent the car, like they did with the phone? Hopefully you are holding a few shares of APPL should that day ever come.
I have no idea what an eventual Apple Car would look like, and I wouldn't even try to imagine, but I just hope that it doesn't look anything close to or even has the slightest resemblance to the revolting looking Fiat mentioned in the article.
Happens in most car shops.
I think it's almost certainly electric, but it's *hard* for electric to make economic sense so long as gas prices stay low. I'm not sure exactly what "low" means in this context, but I suspect that even $4/gallon is still too low.
Now.... it's *hard*, but not impossible. The way for electric to make sense is to put on a *ton* of miles. The car basically needs to be running all the time in order for the fuel cost savings to cover the extra cost of the vehicle. Individually-owned cars that are only used by that individual simply don't get the miles needed.
What vehicles do get the miles needed? Maybe cabs in large cities like NYC, or cars owned by full time Uber drives.
So, I think that the go-to-market strategy has to be transportation as a service, similar to Uber. But better than Uber, because the drivers (if there are drivers) aren't murderers, and the cars are of a consistency high quality.
Another advantage of this approach is that Apple doesn't need showrooms or dealerships. You don't have to convince people to buy a new car -- you just have to convince them to use an app on their iPhone to call an Apple car instead of an Uber car. What fraction of people use Apple Maps instead of Google Maps? -- that's the share you can expect an Apple car to get relative to Uber.
I am suspecting they were powering up the warp core. Until you get the the dilithium crystal assembly and the plasma conduits just right it is prone to making a lot of noise.
Plus, what is all this "totally reinventing" the car talk? Government standards force a certain way cars have to be. I'm sure it'll look great hopefully but it won't be some radical change or design never before seen or heard of.
Apple's success in all of their other product lines is to build a product that someone wants to buy - where the buyer and the user are the same and appreciate the Apple quality/ecosystem. That drive doesn't seem to be there for transportation as a service, and the ecosystem effects are much less.
Maybe they will target transport as a service, as that model is disruptive, but hard to see what Apple's differentiator is there. With the ownership model, one can see the ecosystem benefits an Apple Car could bring to an owner of an iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, etc.
1. Gas prices inevitably will go back up
2. Overall maintenance costs are much lower on an EV
3. Design and manufacture of an EV - excluding the batteries - is greatly simplified
4. Battery costs - the primary driver of any price difference - are rapidly dropping. GM let it be known that they're paying about $145/kW on the Bolt. Tesla is known to have cheaper costs and with their Giga Factory, are driving that cost down even further.
5. Economies of scale matter in manufacturing, so as EV adoption continues to increase then this element gets lower on a per unit basis
The fact is, a significant portion of the population wants to have their own car and whether it makes financial sense factors in very little. The ASP on a new car in the USA is about $31k/$32k. EVs are already available in that range and the list of available choices is continuing to expand.
There's absolutely zero chance Apple introduces a combustion engine-based car.