Apple's Fred Sainz has deep links to San Diego.

It's not quite Cupertino South, but San Diego and its environs have been invaded by a raft of Apple Inc. employees in aid of the iPhone giant's ongoing efforts to wean itself from powerful homegrown smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm.

With 5000 new Apple employees predicted to be in place here by 2026, the company is being wooed by would-be office and research space landlords from downtown's under construction tech campuses to Sorrento Valley.

Raising its local profile further, Apple rolled out its latest iPhone via a splashy video recorded at downtown's Rady Shell. And earlier this week, the company added San Diego and Washington, D.C. to a select few cities getting 3D Apple maps.

Apple's senior director of corporate communications Fred Sainz has deep links to San Diego, having been city director of communications and press secretary to Republican mayor Jerry Sanders from November 2005 to August 2008.

In May 2006, Sainz ordered city staffers not to answer questions from the Reader regarding a proposed municipal WiFi network that subsequently never came to fruition.

"Do not speak with any reporters from the Reader, Sainz said in an email obtained under the California Public Records Act.

"Tell them that you do not speak with reporters from the Reader. No additional information or follow up necessary. Thanks."

In December of last year, Sainz contributed $1150 to current Democratic mayor Todd Gloria's election kitty.

Much lower profile than Sainz and Apple's big San Diego employment effort is the presence of Apple's so-called autonomous vehicle here.

But according to a California Department of Motor Vehicles filing, one of Apple's experimental vehicles, which reportedly are not yet self-driving, crunched fenders last summer with a sloppy driver in the parking lot of a University Avenue strip mall.

The report, labeled Traffic Collision Involving an Autonomous Vehicle and dated August 29, relates the story of the August 19 incident involving an Apple-equipped 2016 Lexus RX 450H and a Hyundai at 690 University Avenue.

"An Apple vehicle, operating in manual mode and leaving a parking space in a San Diego retail parking lot, was struck at low speed on the right front bumper by a Hyundai Sonata reversing from the middle of the parking lot," according to the document.

"To try and avoid the crash, the Apple vehicle stopped prior to being struck. Both vehicles sustained minor damage. At the time of the incident, no injuries were reported by either party and law enforcement was not called to the scene."

The Hillcrest smash-up is not the only road mishap experienced by the company's autonomous vehicles, raising questions about the city becoming a testing ground for automotive automation.

"On September 19, 2019, at 7:58 am, an Apple test vehicle, which was conducting a manually driven test mission, was struck while stopped in the left turn lane preparing to exit the Sunnyvale Community Center Park onto Manet Drive," says a September 23, 2019, DMV report.

"Both vehicles sustained minor damage to the driver's side front bumpers. The drivers exchanged information. No injuries were reported. The police were not called."

According to a November 15 account by the website MacReports, as of September Apple had 69 autonomous vehicles with 114 drivers. Apple has experienced six collisions, the website reports.