Waymo just bought Apple’s test track

A pricey new playground

Waymo apparently just bought Apple’s Arizona proving facility for $220 million, turning a former Apple science project into a fresh toy box for Alphabet’s robotaxi arm. The site is huge, too: 5,500 acres with city streets, an oval track, and a freeway course. Basically, the kind of place where you’d expect a prototype to either graduate… or embarrass itself in spectacular fashion.

Apple’s long goodbye

Apple paid $125 million for the property in 2021, but the bigger story is what it means for the company’s now-dead self-driving dream. Project Titan reportedly burned through more than $1 billion a year before Apple pulled the plug in 2024. So yes, this is one more reminder that autonomous driving can chew through cash like a teenager in a buffet line.

Why investors should care

For Alphabet, the deal gives Waymo more room to test, train, and iterate as it expands its robotaxi footprint across the U.S. That matters because the winner in autonomous driving won’t just be the company with the flashiest demo—it’ll be the one that can keep scaling without setting money on fire.

Meanwhile, the article also name-drops Uber and Lyft, which are still wrestling with how robotaxis fit into a world where human drivers and AVs may end up sharing the same app. Big picture: the self-driving race isn’t over, it’s just moved from hype cycle to expensive industrial-grade reality.