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.

Lyft Inc. said it’s partnering with China’s Baidu Inc. to launch autonomous vehicles in Europe starting next year, an agreement that comes after the US rideshare company finalized its first expansion into the continent.

Lyft says that it will leverage its recent acquisition of taxi company Freenow to speed up deployment of autonomous vehicles, given that platform's established foothold in the UK and Germany. The partnership between Lyft and Baidu,