The self-driving tech company and Apple were rivals before the consumer tech giant got out of the business.
June 9, 2026
Waymo has acquired the Arizona proving ground that was once at the heart of Apple’s ill-fated self-driving car project.
Documents filed with Maricopa County reveal that the robotaxi developer paid $220 million to Route 14 Investments, a Delaware-listed company associated with Apple, for the facility in Wittmann.
Waymo already has testing and development hubs elsewhere, including a proving ground in California and a research center in Ohio, but Wittmann, about 60 miles north-west of Phoenix, is significantly bigger than both. It incorporates a 115-acre city course, a 35-acre dynamics area and a four-mile oval track. There’s also a freeway-style area designed specifically to assess autonomous driving.
