City documents obtained by the Silicon Valley Business Journal reveal that Apple secretly purchased and leased several buildings in the Silicon Valley area in 2014 and 2015, and named them after Greek mythological figures.
You may recall a February report from AppleInsider revealing that neighbours had complained about “late-night motor noises” coming from an Apple-leased Sunnyvale building, leading to speculation that Apple was possibly using the place to test its automotive project dubbed Project Titan.
Project Titan has Greek mythology connotations, as Titans are divine beings who were ultimately overthrown by Cronus’ children, Zeus, Has, Poseidon, Hestia, Hera, and Demeter. Interestingly, as discovered by the SVBJ, Apple’s newly purchased or leased buildings have more connection with Greek mythology than just “Project Titan”.
The aforementioned facility is apparently called Rhea, and city documents reveal references to automotive terms such as “lube bay”, “wheel balancer”, “tire changer”, and “wheel sensor”. Rhea is a female member of the twelve first-generation Titans.
Another interesting reference to Greek mythology is a 290,000-square-foot building in San Jose dubbed Zeus, which Apple bought last year. Just like Rhea, the Zeus work is protected by a tall fence to “prevent any visual connection to the service yard from the parking lot”, city documents show.
There are three more: Athena, the daughter of Zeus, a facility currently used for unknown purposes; Pegasus, another figure from Greek mythology, depicted as a white horse with wings; and finally, Medusa, a 105,000-square-foot facility which will reportedly have rooms for “participant testing”, “eye tracking”, “a vision lab”, “a spray room”, and “a metal/machine room”, the SVBJ notes.
Apple has been rumoured to have had car ambitions for a while, and Bloomberg’s sources say we will likely see the electric car unveiled by 2019.
