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

The deal is part of a broader trend among Chinese autonomous-driving companies to bring their services to international markets.