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.

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.

Lyft will deploy Baidu Apollo Go’s fully electric RT6 autonomous vehicles in Germany and the UK starting in 2026, marking a major milestone in both companies’