French former minister Rachida Dati has gone on trial in Paris for corruption, accused of taking money from Renault-Nissan in return for political influence. Dati, 61, who was justice minister under former President Nicolas Sarkozy and culture minister under Emmanuel Macron, is known to have been paid €900,000 (£770,000) by the car giant between 2009 and 2013. According to a contract signed in 2009, shortly after she ceased being a minister under Sarkozy and was elected as a member of the European Parliament, the payment was for legal services performed for the company. But magistrates argue the contract was used to disguise payments for lobbying work. Magistrates believe Renault-Nissan's former CEO Carlos Ghosn recruited Dati to lobby on the company's behalf in the European Parliament, and to facilitate contacts with Sarkozy who was head of state until 2012.

Waymo might not be done courting the automotive world after working with the likes of Fiat Chrysler and Jaguar Land Rover. Nikkei claims the Alphabet-owned company is in the "final phase" of talks to partner with the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance on self-driving car services. While there aren't too many specifics, one project would have Waymo and Nissan work together on autonomous taxis, including a system for booking rides. You'd hear about the union in the spring, Nikkei said. While there's nothing official yet, both sides would have a strong incentive to cooperate.

In the wait for self-driving technology, cell-phone toting tech bros may have to cede their spot in line to pizzas, Craigslist couches and the mounting ephemera of e-commerce. The future-at least in the near-term-will not only be driverless, but sans passenger as well. The early conversations around driverless cars have focused on robot taxis because taking the human driver out of a cab seemed like the quickest path to profitability. "The revolution in commercial vehicles will come first, then the passenger cars" will follow, said Ashwani Gupta, senior vice president of Renault-Nissan's light commercial vehicle business. "The moment business people start believing this is going to generate additional revenue and that this is going to be more efficient, then I think they'll start working on it."

Last year the average American spent more than 290 hours behind the wheel of a car – that's roughly equivalent to seven 40-hour weeks – according to a report published by the AAA Foundation. When you expand that globally, the amount of time we spend driving is staggering. That's why automakers like Renault-Nissan, Volvo, BMW and Toyota are embracing the Internet of Things (IoT) to provide new ways to help drivers stay safe, connected and productive during their time on the road. By 2020, 90 percent of new cars will have connectivity capabilities1 and Microsoft is helping the automotive industry drive this transformation. Today at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, we announced the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform, an offering built on the powerful Microsoft Azure cloud. It brings Microsoft's intelligent services in virtual assistants, business applications, office services, visual analytics and productivity tools to the car, to reduce driver distractions and help drivers be even more mobile.

French people love to drive, but with private radar companies set to give out way more speeding tickets, they may be willing to let machines take the wheel. Luckily, the Renault-Nissan Alliance has teamed with a company called Transdev to develop a fleet of self-driving vehicles "for future public and on-demand transportation," it said in a press release. The project will kick off with autonomous field testing of Europe's most popular EV, the 250-mile-range Renault Zoe. Transdev, which will supply the self-driving and logistics tech, recently launched what it claims is the "world's first" fully autonomous fleet to run on an industrial site. Its systems are used on the "Navya Arma" vehicles, shuttling employees around EDF nuclear power stations every five minutes.

Researchers will be testing cognitive computing with the BMW i8. IBM Watson could soon be helping you to drive your car, as IBM's cognitive computing unit is set to work with BMW Group to explore how the technology could aid cars of the future. The partnership will see a team of BMW researchers and engineers located at IBM's global headquarters for Watson Internet of Things in Munich, Germany, as the companies work together to develop and improve intelligent assistant functions of BMW cars. BMW's headquarters are also located in Munich. As part of the deal, four BMW i8 hybrid sports cars will also be moved to the Munich Watson IoT HQ, allowing researchers to run prototypes using IBM's Bluemix cloud platform.

Microsoft and Renault-Nissan say their in-car productivity tools will make it "easier for people to stay connected to work, entertainment, and social networks". Microsoft and carmaker Renault-Nissan are working on connected car services, including in-car productivity tools, powered by the cloud. The companies said the services will include navigation, predictive maintenance, and vehicle-centric services, remote monitoring of car features, and over-the-air updates using Microsoft's Azure. Driven to distraction: Why IBM's Watson is getting onboard with self-driving vehicles and impatient passengers IBM has teamed up with Local Motors for a new autonomous vehicle. Here's how it will handle difficult passengers - and why you won't be able to buy one.