Mysterious Apple Van Captured on Video in Palo Alto Residential Neighborhood

A largely unmarked van with rooftop cameras, similar to the one originally spotted roaming Bay Area streets earlier this month, has been captured on video in Palo Alto, California. MacRumors obtained the footage from reader Jonathan Shiu, who recently recorded the van driving past Juana Briones Park on Clemo Avenue, a residential side street located approximately 10 miles from Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.


It has been increasingly speculated that these fifth-generation Dodge Caravans, which are reportedly leased to Apple, are part of the company's work on an electric car, but it is also possible that the vans are being used for a project similar to Google's Street View. It is conceivable that the rooftop cameras are being used to either collect mapping data for Apple Maps or as sensors to assist with self-driving initiatives.

Earlier this week, the Financial Times reported that Apple is hiring automotive experts to work in a top-secret research lab located near the company's headquarters. The Wall Street Journal soon followed up with a report claiming that Apple has hundreds of employees working on developing an electric vehicle, and Reuters added that the project will involve self-driving cars.

Clemo Avenue

Clemo Avenue in Palo Alto, California, about 10 miles from Apple's HQ in Cupertino

Apple is likely in the early stages of research and development for any electric car project, and it is fully possible that the iPhone maker scraps the initiative before it ever reaches the public. With both Google and Tesla already invested in electric and self-driving vehicles, it will be interesting to see if Apple enters the industry or remains on the sidelines in the months and years ahead.

Popular Stories

ios 26 1 slide to stop

iOS 26.1 Brings Back 2007 Feature in New Way

Friday October 31, 2025 1:40 pm PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a small but helpful change for iPhones, and it could prevent you from running late to something important. Specifically, when an alarm goes off in the Clock app, there is a new "slide to stop" control on the screen for turning off the alarm. On previous iOS 26 versions, there is simply a large "stop" button, which could be accidentally tapped. The new ...
Apple Logo Spotlight

Report: Apple to Launch These New Products in 2026

Sunday November 2, 2025 5:34 am PST by
Apple is planning to launch at least 15 new products in 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman outlined what to expect from Apple in 2026 in the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter. He said the company is heading "into one of its most pivotal years in recent memory," with the rollout of major new Apple Intelligence features, intense regulatory pressure on the App Store,...
M5 MacBook Pro

Waiting for New Macs? Apple Just Shared Bad News

Friday October 31, 2025 7:32 am PDT by
Apple has just given a strong indication that it will not be releasing any additional new Macs for the remainder of the year. Apple's CFO Kevan Parekh dropped the hint during the company's earnings call on Thursday:On Mac, keep in mind, we expect to face a very difficult compare against the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac launches in the year-ago quarter.Parekh essentially gave a heads up ...
Apple Intelligence General Feature 2

New Version of Siri to 'Lean' on Google Gemini

Sunday November 2, 2025 6:06 am PST by
In his "Power On" newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today provided an update on the status of Apple Intelligence and the plans for it in 2026. Apple is still planning to roll out its revamped version of Siri around March of next year. The release should be accompanied by the release of a new smart home display product with speaker-base and wall-mount options. A new Apple TV and HomePod...
Apple Foldable Thumb

iPhone Fold: Launch, Pricing, and What to Expect From Apple's Foldable

Friday October 31, 2025 8:52 am PDT by
Apple is expected to launch a new foldable iPhone next year, based on multiple rumors and credible sources. The long-awaited device has been rumored for years now, but signs increasingly suggest that 2026 could indeed be the year that Apple releases its first foldable device. Below, we've collated an updated set of key details that have been leaked about Apple's foldable iPhone so far. Ove...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

New Apple TV and HomePod Mini Likely Launching Soon

Sunday November 2, 2025 5:49 am PST by
A new Apple TV and HomePod mini could launch as soon as this month, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today suggested. In today's "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that Apple retail stores are planning an overnight refresh on the evening of November 11, where changes will be made after closing, such as refreshing displays and placing new products for the following day. The timing of the overnight...
Coffee Burgundy and Purple iPhone 18 Pro Mock 1

Leaker Outlines Potential New Colors for iPhone 18 Pro

Friday October 31, 2025 8:28 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro models could be available in new rich and warm color option, according to a known leaker. The Weibo user known as "Instant Digital" today suggested that next-year's iPhone 18 Pro models will be available in at least one of the following color options: Coffee, purple, and burgundy. The iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 14, and iPhone 14 Pro were all available in ...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

8 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Thursday October 30, 2025 4:42 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
iOS 26

6 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.1

Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below. Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...

Top Rated Comments

MichaelJohnston Avatar
140 months ago
How is it 2015 and we're still dealing with VVS? //www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA
Score: 58 Votes (Like | Disagree)
_Refurbished_ Avatar
140 months ago
A van, a computer, and a GPS communications device. Are you getting it? These aren't three separate devices. This is one device. And we're calling it iSoccerMom. Today, Apple is going to re-invent the soccer mom.
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Renzatic Avatar
140 months ago
Run out front of it and see if it stops in time. :D

HEY GUYS! IT'S THAT NEW APPLE MINIVAN! LET'S SEE IF IT'S ONE OF THOSE SELF DR*thudunk**thudunk*.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Squid7085 Avatar
140 months ago
It seems almost pointless for Apple start their own street view project, unless they had some major upgrade to the original....which I can't imagine what it would be.
How would it be pointless? The original point of StreetView was to send vehicles out to actually drive the roads and improve the maps. The photos could assist in reading signs for speed limits and one-way streets, and the GPS data could help improve the maps. This isn't new, Garmin and other companies had been doing similar things for years to help improve their maps, that's how the "base map" that Google and Apple started with was made. Apple would be stupid to NOT be doing this to help improve their maps.

With that said, maybe it was Googles plan all along, but given how awful the original street view photos were, I don't think they ever intended to make the images public. Rather they used them internally to improve maps. Somebody likely said one day "Hey, maybe our users would find these images useful."

If I were to throw in my guess as to what Apple is doing, I would say it's a mix between street view and flyover. Flyover looks great from far away, but is pretty rough at street level. If Apple is driving around and taking "flyover" photos at street level, that could create something as useful as street view, but have it actually have dimension instead of being flat photos. That could be really useful and cool, while also serving the basic purpose of improving map data.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
wxman2003 Avatar
140 months ago
Apple is trying to think outside the box to make Safari snappier.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Westside guy Avatar
140 months ago
Maybe Apple should invest some of those billions of dollars towards finding a cure for those people who are physically incapable of rotating their phones to a horizontal position when shooting video.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)