Recent reports give credence to the long-speculated Project Titan where Apple is allegedly developing its own self-driving car.
The Guardian got hold of documents pertaining to a meeting between Apple's legal counsel Mike Maletic and the California DMV's self-driving car experts. Reportedly, the department said "the Apple meeting was to review [the] DMV's autonomous vehicle regulations."
Per the website, it is the department who is responsible for crafting rules that govern the use of autonomous vehicles on public roads.
But in order for Apple to test its self-driving car on public roads, it will have to divulge many of Project Titan's intimate details. However, this would go against the Cupertino tech giant's penchant for secrecy.
An alternative would be testing in a secure facility. Franchise Herald picked up The Guardian's earlier story which said that Apple execs met with officials of GoMentum Station - a known proving ground for self-driving cars.
Still, it could simply acquire its own property and conduct the tests there - "something the company may already have been doing for some time," TG speculated.
The website also said that Project Titan is indeed ready for testing because Apple has allegedly appointed an engineering program manager. Apparently, the EPM is set to work with hardware and software engineers at a low-profile lab and office complex called SG05 at Sunnyvale.
There's also an indication that the vehicle may be further along development than previously thought.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Apple has marked Project Titan as a "committed project" even going so far as targeting a 2019 ship date.
Citing people familiar with the matter, WSJ said project leaders "have been given permission to triple the 600-person team."
Although the iPhone maker has been on a hiring spree of self-driving car experts, the website's sources said it isn't planning on making fully-autonomous vehicles. However, the feature is in the pipeline.
Apple has chosen not to comment on reports that its developing a self-driving car under Project Titan.
