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.

The companies want to launch the robotaxi services in Germany and the U.K. first, pending regulatory approval.