Apple Leases Sunnyvale Industrial Building Near Rumored Car Development Site

[MacRumors]

Apple has expanded its real estate holdings in Sunnyvale, California with the lease of a 96,000 square foot industrial property that formerly served as a Pepsi bottling plant, reports The Silicon Valley Business Journal. Apple inked a deal for the location in November, but news of the lease has just recently surfaced and it is not clear how long Apple has been at the location.

A property lease in Sunnyvale is notable because it is rumored to be the area where Apple is working on its secret car project. Apple has several known offices at a 7-building campus at North Wolfe Road and Central Expressway in Sunnyvale and one building at the location is suspected to be a shell company serving as a front for Apple's car development efforts.

The former Pepsi bottling plant Apple now leases, via The Silicon Valley Business Journal​

960 Kifer Road, where the former Pepsi bottling plant is located, is less than a mile away from the above-mentioned 7-building campus. According to The Silicon Valley Business Journal, it isn't known what the facility will be used for, but it is a "warehouse-type" industrial site that sits on 5 acres of land and has truck docks in the back.

City permits gave no clues about its use, as only a seismic upgrade was on file, suggesting Apple plans to use the building as is instead of redeveloping it. Apple has also previously leased an 80,000 square foot building at 1150-1170 Kifer Road, just down the street from the new location, and a 140,000 square foot building at 3689 Kifer Road, located across the street from the building at 1150 Kifer Road.

Apple is rumored to be taking on hundreds of employees to work on its car project, which could explain its rapid Bay Area expansion. Apple has also purchased a lot of space in San Jose, including an 86-acre piece of land where it can build a campus that's up to 4.5 million square feet.

Article Link: Apple Leases Sunnyvale Industrial Building Near Rumored Car Development Site

 

[pat500000]

iCar... I wonder if someone will reveal windshield size, door size, steering wheel, engines...probably made out of A11x chip that will eventually be used for ipad. I'm sure someone will reveal the navigation system leading us to our death.

EDIT: I gotta see how thin it will be...

 

[CFreymarc]

Wouldn't be surprised of they are taking this location due to the neighbor complains at the current Titan site. The building has been empty for almost a decade and is prime Valley real estate in the middle of a light industrial site. There is not residential around for almost a half mile. This gives plenty of noise buffer for exotic works. Also, Halted Specialties is not that far away and a great place to pick up off electronic surplus parts and such. Could become a gathering spot for the crew. Historically, this was ground zero for a lot of early semiconductor fabrication and integration. Nice to see the area still going state-of-the-art.
[doublepost=1456879991][/doublepost]

iCar... I wonder if someone will reveal windshield size, door size, steering wheel, engines...probably made out of A11x chip that will eventually be used for ipad. I'm sure someone will reveal the navigation system leading us to our death.

Honestly I don't see much of any other Apple product architecture going into this. The Apple Watch was a totally new architecture with integration into iOS. The car, I'm sure they are looking at a totally different architecture and a the inevitable "CarKit" that will allow iOS apps integrated into whatever Titan manifests. We are dealing with above one amp here in product design. That's a totally different breed of electrical engineer from what is around Cupertino.
[doublepost=1456880087][/doublepost]

iCar... I wonder if someone will reveal windshield size, door size, steering wheel, engines...probably made out of A11x chip that will eventually be used for ipad. I'm sure someone will reveal the navigation system leading us to our death.

EDIT: I gotta see how thin it will be...

I bet there are a half dozen red herrings that will leak in the next year to throw everyone off. Most will probably be concepts that didn't make the cut. Looking forward to thus rumor parade.

 

[poematik13]

sales listing for the building (currently off market) says "automotive: truck repair".

 

[gavroche]

When i read the prior articles about Apple's facility, and all the noise complaints and all that... my first thought was that this is very Sloppy for Apple. They go to great lengths to maintain secrecy.... so why would they have picked a location that is close enough to neighbors that they can hear engines and all that. Weird. Maybe this is to remedy that situation..

 

[pat500000]

Wouldn't be surprised of they are taking this location due to the neighbor complains at the current Titan site. The building has been empty for almost a decade and is prime Valley real estate in the middle of a light industrial site. There is not residential around for almost a half mile. This gives plenty of noise buffer for exotic works. Also, Halted Specialties is not that far away and a great place to pick up off electronic surplus parts and such. Could become a gathering spot for the crew. Historically, this was ground zero for a lot of early semiconductor fabrication and integration. Nice to see the area still going state-of-the-art.
[doublepost=1456879991][/doublepost]

Honestly I don't see much of any other Apple product architecture going into this. The Apple Watch was a totally new architecture with integration into iOS. The car, I'm sure they are looking at a totally different architecture and a the inevitable "CarKit" that will allow iOS apps integrated into whatever Titan manifests. We are dealing with above one amp here in product design. That's a totally different breed of electrical engineer from what is around Cupertino.

My concern is QA staffs may not be doing their job effectively. I shouldn't compare os x with car..but i will because they haven't shown much improvement with QA issue in these regards, bugs/glitches/ethernet issues/ ...and battling with FBI, which may be distracting them from focusing on quality issues.

 

[uid15]

To keep reiterating this is tiresome, but here we go, once more:

There IS NO CAR.
[doublepost=1456880394][/doublepost]

When i read the prior articles about Apple's facility, and all the noise complaints and all that... my first thought was that this is very Sloppy for Apple. They go to great lengths to maintain secrecy.... so why would they have picked a location that is close enough to neighbors that they can hear engines and all that. Weird. Maybe this is to remedy that situation..

Have you considered that the clanging, clanking and revving of engines may be an intentional DECOY, with actual research going on at a different location? I wouldn't put it past Apple, and no one can prove it not to be the case. It would be a very sensible, clever idea.

 

[kwikdeth]

is it just me or is this slightly confusing -
"a 140,000 square foot building at 3689 Kifer Road, located across the street from the building at 1150 Kifer Road."

its across the street but the address is 2500 higher? every place ive ever been that would be like two miles apart.

 

[Benjamin Frost]

Well, good luck to them, but we already have the Apple of cars:

Volkswagen.

 

[gavroche]

To keep reiterating this is tiresome, but here we go, once more:

There IS NO CAR.
[doublepost=1456880394][/doublepost]

Have you considered that the clanging, clanking and revving of engines may be an intentional DECOY, with actual research going on at a different location? I wouldn't put it past Apple, and no one can prove it not to be the case. It would be a very sensible, clever idea.

Ha... yea. and the "neighbors" that were trying to walk their dogs and chased away by security... they were probably Samsung spies that were planted there years prior...

 

[jayducharme]

I wonder if Microsoft will be getting into the car business now too. (I assume Samsung already has.) If MS does enter the market, the would-be Apple car could have an interesting ad campaign: "We crash less than Windows."

 

[FSMBP]

Jack of all trades, master of none.

 

[SirCheese]

Ha... yea. and the "neighbors" that were trying to walk their dogs and chased away by security... they were probably Samsung spies that were planted there years prior...

Nothing to do with Samsung, yet you felt the need to drag them into this thread.
[doublepost=1456882644][/doublepost]

I wonder if Microsoft will be getting into the car business now too. (I assume Samsung already has.) If MS does enter the market, the would-be Apple car could have an interesting ad campaign: "We crash less than Windows."

Samsung has been for many years now.

 

[uid15]

For anyone with more than a modicum of common sense, you'll know that Samsung is a VAST corporation, and they build ships amongst many other things, so, with that feather in their HUGE cap, I think you'll find that building a car would be trivial for them - they'd knock one up in their tea break!

 

[CFreymarc]

To keep reiterating this is tiresome, but here we go, once more:

There IS NO CAR.

That is quite the possibility where they are working with existing automotive manufactures and this is just a confidential testing ground for next generation CarPlay.

 

[William Wales]

Anyhow, it is a good news that Apple may be researching technology in the automotive field. Look forward to its more innovation. I'm really appreciated to see it.

 

[CFreymarc]

For anyone with more than a modicum of common sense, you'll know that Samsung is a VAST corporation, and they build ships amongst many other things, so, with that feather in their HUGE cap, I think you'll find that building a car would be trivial for them - they'd knock one up in their tea break!

Samsung definitely does have the resources for making a car. But where they fit in South Korean politics, competing with the Hyundai / Kai boys would rub a lot of people the wrong way in high places. We are talking Asian corporate politics where whom is married to whom with what board seat relations still has a feudal mindset.
[doublepost=1456884228][/doublepost]

My concern is QA staffs may not be doing their job effectively. I shouldn't compare os x with car..but i will because they haven't shown much improvement with QA issue in these regards, bugs/glitches/ethernet issues/ ...and battling with FBI, which may be distracting them from focusing on quality issues.

Apple is a big company with north of 50,000 employees. The FBI debacle is at most a dozen or so people on the executive board and legal department. The rest of the company, this is office cooler talk. There is plenty of resources around to make it go right. In fact, when you have this many people in an organization, there is an entire management art to keeping internal resources in contention.

 

[pat500000]

Samsung definitely does have the resources for making a car. But where they fit in South Korean politics, competing with the Hyundai / Kai boys would rub a lot of people the wrong way in high places. We are talking Asian corporate politics where whom is married to whom with what board seat relations still has a feudal mindset.
[doublepost=1456884228][/doublepost]
Apple is a big company with north of 50,000 employees. The FBI debacle is at most a dozen or so people on the executive board and legal department. The rest of the company, this is office cooler talk. There is plenty of resources around to make it go right. In fact, when you have this many people in an organization, there is an entire management art to keeping internal resources in contention.

You know...I always wondered how Apple did so well (not perfect) when Tim Cook was a COO instead of CEO.

 

[Speedy Dingo]

Apple Water confirmed. Why else hire an old Pepsi-Cola building?

 

[Bubba Satori]

That is quite the possibility where they are working with existing automotive manufactures and this is just a confidential testing ground for next generation CarPlay.

No, it's going to be the PlayCar.

[doublepost=1456885535][/doublepost]

You know...I always wondered how Apple did so well (not perfect) when Tim Cook was a COO instead of CEO.

Because the CEO was a visionary and the COO was a glorified shipping clerk, I mean logistics guru.

 

[MentalFloss]

Hey, that is just around the corner from the ugliest Fry's I have ever been to. At least the Apple guys can just walk over there if they should ever run out of electronics supplies or sugary snacks.

 

[CFreymarc]

View attachment 619249 Apple Water confirmed. Why else hire an old Pepsi-Cola building?

Then there are the Apple Kool-Aide ads.

 

[Tech198]

oh man. no more Pepsi,,, thankx allot ..

I'd go with the Apple water I could drink that all day seeing that logo shift.

 

[MentalFloss]

You know...I always wondered how Apple did so well (not perfect) when Tim Cook was a COO instead of CEO.

You mean as opposed to them now being nearly bankrupt with heavy losses each quarter?

 

[pat500000]

You mean as opposed to them now being nearly bankrupt with heavy losses each quarter?

Are you referring to before Steve Job took over apple again?
[doublepost=1456887212][/doublepost]

No, it's going to be the PlayCar.

[doublepost=1456885535][/doublepost]

Because the CEO was a visionary and the COO was a glorified shipping clerk, I mean logistics guru.

LOL. That is true. Tim was about numbers...so yes. Too bad he lacks the understanding of people's need.