Waymo's autonomous cars will drive outside the US for the first time

Waymo's self-driving cars are moving beyond the sunny skies of Phoenix and across the world — specifically, to France and Japan.

On Thursday, the Google spin-off autonomous car company announced a partnership with Renault and Nissan. They'll be looking into driverless rides for passengers and deliveries in those two countries and eventually beyond. Testing in France and Japan, where Renault and Nissan are, respectively, based, will kick off the partnership. This eventually could lead to global expansion, though not in China, the car makers pointed out in a release.

Waymo currently operates its robo-taxi service, Waymo One, in the Phoenix, Arizona, area in Chrysler Pacifica minivans. It also tests the self-driving cars in other locations like California, but nowhere outside the U.S. Last year, Waymo CEO John Krafcik spoke about the possibility of expanding the autonomous cars to Europe for testing there. Read more...