Waymo, Google's self-driving car division, has acquired the Oxford artificial intelligence company Latent Logic for an undisclosed amount, giving Waymo its first presence in the UK. Latent Logic, a spinout company from the University of Oxford, specialises in "imitation learning", teaching machines how to act by showing them examples of humans doing the same actions. It was founded in 2017 by the academics Shimon Whiteson and João Messias. Waymo hopes the company's expertise can be put to use teaching AI drivers how to deal with complex behaviour such as a car cutting off another at a roundabout, a pedestrian emerging from a parked car, or a cyclist skidding in rain. "The team's expertise in reinforcement learning and imitation learning can help further accelerate Waymo's progress in areas from simulation to behaviour prediction and planning," the company said in a statement.