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.

Just this week, Waymo-modified Jaguar I-Pace small SUVs were spotted by TechCrunch on public roads near Waymo headquarters in Silicon Valley. Last year, Waymo announced a 20,000-car deal with Jaguar’s new all-electric SUV.

Other self-driving car companies are teaming up with car makers. Last week Bay Area-based Aurora — backed by Amazon — announced a partnership with Fiat Chrysler (yes, the same makers of Waymo’s minivans). Aurora’s autonomous driving platform is already tested on other sedans, SUVs, minivans, big rigs, and other trucks and vans. 

More self-driving cars keep popping up around the U.S. and world. The latest count from U.S. transportation secretary Elaine Chao puts the number at around 1,400 self-driving cars, testing in 36 states and Washington, D.C., from 80 different companies.