Renault and Nissan Team For Robotaxis Outside US

Self-driving car pioneer Waymo is teaming up with automakers Renault and Nissan to make its first journey outside United States of America (US). with a ride-hailing service that will dispatch a fleet of robotaxis in France and Japan. 

partnership anunced late Wednesday underscores Waymo’s ambition to deploy its driverless techlogy throughout world in an attempt to revolutionize way people get around. Mountain View, California, company can afford to try because it’s backed by one of world’s richest companies, Google, which secretly began working on driverless techlogy a dece ago before spinning off that project into what is w kwn as Waymo. 

After launching its ride-hailing service in France and Japan, Waymo intends to explore or European and Asian markets with Renault and Nissan. 

“This is an ideal opportunity for Waymo to bring our automous techlogy to a global st,” Waymo CEO John Krafcik said. 

Waymo, Renault and Nissan didn’t set a timetable for when ir ride-hailing service will launch. y left most or details vague. 

It seems likely it will still be several years before Waymo will be in a position to pose a serious challenge to Uber, world’s largest ride-hailing service. Although Waymo’s self-driving techlogy is widely considered to be world’s most vanced, it still isn’t ept eugh to be trusted without a human poised to take control in case something goes awry with robot. 

Waymo h hoped to launch a fully automous ride-hailing service last year in Phoenix area, but inste is still keeping human safety drivers in those vehicles more than six months after it rolled out. That service, kwn as Waymo One, is still only offering rides to a few hundred passengers that previously participated in a test program. 

Krafcik told German newspaper Handelsblatt last year that Waymo will likely use a different brand for its ride-hailing services outside U.S. That could be one reason Waymo is working with France-based Renault and Japan-based Nissan, household names in ir home countries. 

Waymo has previously struck deals with two automakers, Fiat Chrysler and Jaguar, but those involved ordering tens of thousands of vehicles to be equipped with self-driving techlogy for services in U.S. So far, Waymo is only using Fiat Chrysler minivans for its Phoenix service. 

partnership with Renault and Nissan also involves a long-time alliance y formed with Mitsubishi. But fate of that alliance has been in limbo since Carlos Ghosn, former CEO of both Renault and Nissan, was arrested late last year on charges that included falsifying financial reports. 

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