Alphabet's autonomous vehicle unit Waymo has established a German legal entity, signalling preparations for a potential entry into the European robotaxi market.

The new entity, Waymo Germany, lists Google's Munich office as its registered address, according to a filing cited by Bloomberg.

Its stated purpose covers autonomous vehicle ride-hailing operations, as well as services that may support third-party commercial offerings of the same kind.

No launch timeline has been announced.

Before entering a new market, Waymo typically deploys a small fleet of human-supervised vehicles to map unfamiliar environments and develop its self-driving software.

The process can take months or years, though timelines have shortened for recent US market entries where regulatory conditions are more accommodating.

A Waymo spokesperson told Bloomberg: “Waymo has global ambitions, with plans already underway to bring our fully autonomous ride-hailing service to London and Tokyo. We are engaging with officials around the world to explain our technology and lay the groundwork for global operations.”

Germany has drawn interest from several autonomous vehicle operators, among them UK-based Wayve Technologies and Chinese firms Baidu and Momenta.

Uber Technologies also announced a tie-up earlier this month with Israeli AI company Autobrains Technologies, with Munich named as an eventual robotaxi launch location.

Waymo has outlined plans to enter 21 further markets domestically and globally.

In February this year, Waymo closed a $16bn financing round that valued the company at $126bn on a post-money basis.

The round was led by Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global and Sequoia Capital.

Alphabet retains the largest shareholding, with Andreessen Horowitz and Mubadala Capital also among the participants.