U.S. ride-hailing company Lyft said on Monday it will partner with China's Baidu to deploy robotaxis across Europe starting next year, marking the Chinese search engine giant's first foray into the European self-driven taxi sector.

The initial rollout will take place in Germany and the UK, featuring Baidu’s electric RT6 robotaxis operating on Lyft’s platform.

Baidu deal marks LYFT’s most aggressive international expansion to date, following its recent acquisition of FreeNow – a German ride-hailing platform – and position it to challenge incumbents like Uber and Bolt in Europe’s competitive mobility market.