‘Motor noises’ complaint at Apple’s auto campus fuels speculation

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Apple Car might be coming, but will it be special?
Apple's electric car is making a lot of noise.
Photo: Aristomenis Tsirbas/Freelancer

Apple is supposedly revving up the engines on its electric car project, and it’s waking up the neighbors in the process.

At least one resident who lives near Apple’s top-secret automotive campus in Sunnyvale, California, has filed a complaint with the city for what the person describes as really loud “motor noises” coming from the Apple campus late at night — even though electric cars are mostly silent.

“(Do) there have to (be) motor noises at 11:00 p.m. at night like last night?” the resident wrote in their note to the city of Sunnyvale that has been obtained by AppleInsider. “Even with the windows closed I could still hear it.”

The report suggests that the noises have something to do with the Apple car, but there’s zero evidence that what residents have heard has anything to do with Project Titan.

It seems highly unlikely what residents have heard are engine noises from the Apple car. Electric car engines make pretty much zero noise compared to internal combustion engines, so unless Apple is secretly building a monster truck, the Apple car would have no problem staying stealth at night.

The more likely explanation for the motor noises is construction. The site has undergone major renovations in the last year, so it’s likely any noise complaints stem from big construction equipment pulling an all-nighter.

There has yet to be any clear evidence that Apple is actually using the building complex to develop its car project. It’s just a few miles from Apple’s Infinite Loop campus. The 300,000-square-foot Sunnyvale campus is comprised of seven buildings leased by SixtyEight Research, which some Apple followers believe is a shell corporation for Cupertino to hide its car behind until the vehicle is ready for its debut.

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