Apple wants to field test a self-driving car, according to public document from May

A piece of correspondence unearthed by a public records request may provide more evidence that Apple is indeed building a self-driving car.

A report in the Guardian today says that Apple engineers met in May with officials from GoMentum Station, a 2,100-acre former naval base near San Francisco that is now used as a testing ground for autonomous and connected vehicles.

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The correspondence the Guardian obtained is a memo from Apple engineer Frank Fearon to GoMentum, in which he wrote: “We would… like to get an understanding of timing and availability for the space, and how we would need to coordinate around other parties who would be using [it].”

The document says nothing about an Apple autonomous vehicle, but the document seems to reveal that Apple expressed interest in renting time at a facility that specializes in testing autonomous and connected vehicles.

VentureBeat spoke briefly with GoMentum Station’s autonomous vehicle program manager Arya Rohani, but he declined to comment on Apple’s plans or activities at the testing site.

GoMentum Station is overseen by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA), which is why correspondence with the facility is subject to public information requests.

GoMentum Station is working with several automobile manufacturers to test and validate new autonomous vehicle technology, according to its website.