Japan: Renault-Nissan plans driverless ride-hailing and ride-sharing services

Ogi Redzic, head of Renault-Nissan's Connected Vehicles and Mobility Services division, said the alliance would begin self-driving services based on its electric cars "certainly within 10 years," though not likely before 2020.

"We think that the big opportunity for us is in automation, electric vehicles and ride-sharing and hailing together," Redzic said in an interview on Thursday.

The two automakers are developing a system with Japanese game software maker DeNA and French public transport operator Transdev.

Automakers are leveraging expertise in automated driving functions for mass-market cars to develop mobility services, as they compete with tech firms such as Alphabet and Uber in the fast-growing "pay-per-ride" market which threatens to hit demand for car ownership.