Google's self-driving car company Waymo has broken ground in Europe by buying an Oxford startup

• Alphabet self-driving subsidiary Waymo announced Thursday that it had acquired Oxford University spinout Latent Logic.
• As well as buying up Latent Logic's tech and talent, Waymo announced that it would establish its first European engineering hub.
• At the moment Waymo's cars only operate in Phoenix, Arizona, but the firm has signalled it wants to break into Europe in time for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Google's self-driving ambitions are spreading to Europe.

Waymo, the self-driving firm owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, on Thursday acquired British startup Latent Logic.

"By joining Waymo, we are taking a big leap towards realising our ambition of safe, self-driving vehicles," Latent Logic founder Shimon Whiteson told the Guardian.

"In just two years, we have made significant progress in using imitation learning to simulate real human behaviours on the road. I'm excited by what we can now achieve in combining this expertise with the talent, resources and progress Waymo have already made in self-driving technology," he added.

Latent Logic spun out from the University of Oxford in 2017, and specialises in "imitation learning."

Per Forbes, Latent Logic collects traffic data to give its algorithm examples of real-world driving behavior. The idea is that this will make autonomous vehicles better at reacting to unpredictable situations.

Google was not immediately available for comment when asked by Business Insider about the cost of the acquisition.

Buying Latent Logic has also signals Waymo breaking ground in both the UK and Europe, and it announced the creation of Waymo's "first engineering hub in Europe" alongside the acquisition. The company will set up shop in Oxford, where Latent Logic is based.

Waymo's self-driving taxis first hit the roads in Phoenix, Arizona at the end of 2018.

The cars are yet to make it beyond Phoenix, let alone the US.

The company signed a deal with Renault in October to set up a self-driving route from Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport to an area just outside the city, with a view to having it operational by the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Do you work at Waymo? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at ihamilton@businessinsider.com or iahamilton@protonmail.com. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

NOW WATCH: What it's like to get laser eye surgery