Lyft and Baidu plan to carry their robotaxis to the UK and Germany subsequent yr

Lyft and Baidu have shed extra gentle on their plan for a . After the primary rollouts — that are earmarked for Asia and the Center East later this yr — the businesses have their designs set on Europe. They’re robotaxis within the UK and Germany in 2026, so long as they get approval from regulators. The purpose is to then increase the European fleet to 1000’s of autos throughout the continent within the following years.

Baidu is utilizing its sixth-generation Apollo Go autos for this rollout. As soon as the robotaxis begin operations in a given market, shoppers will be capable to ebook rides in them by way of the Lyft app.

Lyft says that it’s going to leverage its recent acquisition of taxi company Freenow to hurry up deployment of autonomous autos, provided that platform’s established foothold within the UK and Germany. The partnership between Lyft and Baidu, which the pair introduced final month, follows Baidu to start out testing Apollo Go in Europe later this yr.