Chinese tech giant Baidu on Monday announced a partnership with US ride-hailing platform Lyft that will see the two companies launch autonomous ride-hailing services in key European markets, marking a major step in the search engine firm’s plans for a global robotaxi network. The deployment is expected to begin in Germany and the UK in 2026, with a goal of operating “thousands of vehicles across Europe” in the coming years, according to an announcement. FreeNow, the mobility services company acquired by Lyft from Mercedes-Benz and BMW, will be a key enabler for deployment in these priority markets, and though the move still requires regulatory approval, Reuters quoted a senior Lyft executive’s assertion that FreeNow has a “deep, long-lasting relationship with regulators.” Baidu, sometimes known as the “Google of China,” runs 1,000 robocars for passenger transport in roughly a dozen mainland Chinese cities, and plans to launch its Apollo Go robotaxi services in Singapore and Malaysia as early as this year, Bloomberg reported in June. [TechNode reporting, Reuters]Related