The potential alliance of German companies, which include Continental and Robert Bosch [ROBG.UL], would pool their resources to move forward more quickly as they race to keep up with rapid technological advances in the United States and China, the report said.

"If we combine our knowledge and technology, then we can even overtake Waymo," the magazine quoted one of the participants in the talks as saying.

Waymo is part of the Google parent Alphabet.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, editing by Tassilo Hummel)