Truck carrying secured Apple payload crashes in San Jose, killing one

A box truck carrying "a very special load" for Apple reportedly crashed on Highway 101 in San Jose on the morning of Jan. 9, injuring one man and killing another, 64-year-old Richard Bartolo.

The two are retired police officers and were armed to protect themselves, according to an NBC Bay Area source. The survivor was the driver, who said he fell asleep at the wheel shortly after 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday while driving north out of Los Angeles. Bartolo was asleep in the back of the cabin.

"There are a lot of questions that still remain open, which is why we are continuing the investigation," said a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, Ross Lee. He did note that the drivers kept a mandatory log and appears to have adhered to rest schedules mandated by law.

NBC cited several sources in saying that the victims were working for SIS Security and transporting "secret" Apple cargo. Apple neither confirmed nor denied that it owned the contents of the vehicle.

While the truck was presumably heading toward Apple Park or 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, the company keeps virtually all of its research projects under a shroud, even minor hardware updates. The company is known to be working on self-driving car technology, and is likely building an augmented reality headset.

AppleInsider's sources inside Apple not authorized to speak on behalf of the company believe that the vehicle was under Apple contract at the time, but refused comment on possible contents. We have learned that the company that employed the drivers, SIS Security, does the vast majority of Apple's land-based secure transport, ranging from the mundane like shredded document disposal, to prototype device transport. It does not appear that anything has been stolen from the mostly unladen but not empty vehicle, and no foul play is suspected.

22 Comments

krreagan2 75 comments · 8 Years

About 5 years ago

Auto drive can't come early enough! Especially for the long haul truckers!

22july2013 3723 comments · 11 Years

krreagan2 said:

Auto drive can't come early enough! Especially for the long haul truckers!

In principle I would like to see self driving cars, but in practice I won't support the idea until the computer becomes as smart about human life issues as an 18 year old. Right now I'm guessing that self driving cars have the intelligence of a 6 year old. Which is impressive.

zoetmb 2655 comments · 17 Years

krreagan2 said:

Auto drive can't come early enough! Especially for the long haul truckers!

Sure. Let's put more people out of work just to increase profits and to give tech types an erection. It's bad enough that we already have those double trucks on highways.

We already have people attacking self-driving vehicles. What's going to happen when idiots start cutting off self-driving trucks just to see if they can cause an accident? The truck will either have to slam on its brakes which could result in a rear-end collision or it might swerve into another lane, which could also cause a serious accident.

The Teamsters Union has 1.4 million members. Do you really think they're not going to react when they start losing jobs to self-driving trucks?

And even though human-driven trucks get into plenty of accidents, including some incredibly stupid ones, like shearling off the top because they went through an overpass tunnel that was too low for the truck, there will be far more emotion associated with accidents caused by self-driving vehicles. As soon as there are more than a few deaths, politicians will start pushing for bans in local areas because it's an issue that's easy to understand and is very populist. I can see the demonstrators now: "No Self-Driving Trucks Around Our Kids!" regardless of whether self-driving trucks have better accident records than human-driven trucks.

And as far as this driver was concerned, if he fell asleep at 3am while driving, I don't care what's in his log book, he obviously didn't get enough rest.

AppleExposed 1805 comments · 6 Years

Apples fault. They mistreat their employees and kill cops.

/s

ericthehalfbee 4489 comments · 13 Years

zoetmb said:

krreagan2 said:

Auto drive can't come early enough! Especially for the long haul truckers!

Sure. Let's put more people out of work just to increase profits and to give tech types an erection. It's bad enough that we already have those double trucks on highways.

We already have people attacking self-driving vehicles. What's going to happen when idiots start cutting off self-driving trucks just to see if they can cause an accident? The truck will either have to slam on its brakes which could result in a rear-end collision or it might swerve into another lane, which could also cause a serious accident.

The Teamsters Union has 1.4 million members. Do you really think they're not going to react when they start losing jobs to self-driving trucks?

And even though human-driven trucks get into plenty of accidents, including some incredibly stupid ones, like shearling off the top because they went through an overpass tunnel that was too low for the truck, there will be far more emotion associated with accidents caused by self-driving vehicles. As soon as there are more than a few deaths, politicians will start pushing for bans in local areas because it's an issue that's easy to understand and is very populist. I can see the demonstrators now: "No Self-Driving Trucks Around Our Kids!" regardless of whether self-driving trucks have better accident records than human-driven trucks.

And as far as this driver was concerned, if he fell asleep at 3am while driving, I don't care what's in his log book, he obviously didn't get enough rest.

If the only thing that happens from the arrival of self-driving trucks is to piss off the Teamsters, then that's already a good enough reason.

There are numerous benefits to self-driving vehicles (trucks being one of them). Fewer accidents (bringing fewer injuries/deaths), reduced emissions/pollution, reduced shipping costs for all the companies that need to move goods and reduced highway congestion.

Put people out of work? I heard this doom & gloom story way back when personal computers just started coming out. Suddenly accountants and other office staff were going to be out of work and there would be massive unemployment when they were replaced by computers. How did that turn out? While there's no doubt some jobs were lost, how many millions of new jobs exist because of the PC industry? Before the personal computer there was always some other piece of technology or equipment that was going to cause massive unemployment by automating tasks that once required a human to do. I don't see this as any different. Some jobs will be lost and other new ones will be created. I can't stand when people use the threat of massive job loss to try and prevent new technology from being adopted.