At first glance, the grounds surrounding Castle Air Force Base seem like they belong to a bygone era. A military aviation museum along a nearby highway boasts an SR-71 Blackbird, which first flew in 1962 and remains one of the fastest airplanes ever built; a former Air Force One aircraft used by multiple presidents; and a B-52 Stratofortress bomber that pays homage to the base?s roots as a training ground for World War II and Cold War?era pilots.
Located amid parched farmland north of Merced, California, the base was shuttered as part of military budget cuts in 1995. In a nod to the hard times that followed, government officials built a federal prison alongside the 11,800-foot runway that once launched some of the military?s most ambitious aviation projects. Yet, while the B-52s are long gone, ambitions still run high at the site. The first indication comes with a small green sign affixed to a gate just past a security post: ?Welcome to Castle. Home of Moonshots.? Inside a fence that rings 91 acres of buildings and streets left over from the facility’s military past, Waymo has been testing autonomous technology that could soon transform the way Americans travel. Such tests have occurred on the Castle grounds since 2013, when Waymo was still known as Google?s self-driving-car project. Today, the area is teeming with minivans that operate without anyone sitting behind the wheel.
Until the past few months, the work taking place here has been kept under wraps. But on ...