Google is reported to be in talks with Ford to pool their resources to build autonomous cars.

An announcement of a formal partnership could come as soon as January - according to Automotive News who broke this story, citing a source with knowledge of the project.

It says that an announcement could be made at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas three weeks from now.

A Google spokesman told Automotive News that the company would not comment on these reports - although it has confirmed in the past that the company has been in talks with traditional car companies.

The tech giant hopes to bring a self-driving car to market by 2020 and is planning to partner with car manufacturers to speed-up the process.

Google is expected to create a separate company to work on cars under its newly created Alphabet parent company. It has begun testing its self driving prototype vehicles on public roads in Mountain View, California and Austin, Texas. 

Ford has increased the resources which it has been putting into developing self-driving technology - it has also been speculated that the car maker is planning to create its own standalone company for its driverless project.