Nov 6 (Reuters) - Lyft ( LYFT ) said on Wednesday it

will partner with Mobileye and two other companies in

the robotaxi industry to bring self-driving cars onto its

ridehail platform and bolster research and development in the

sector.

The app-based taxi platform will incorporate cars owned by

third-party fleet operators, equipped with the Mobileye Drive

self-driving system, as it looks to compete with rival Uber ( UBER )

, which has signed a slew of autonomous taxi agreements.

Lyft ( LYFT ), which is set to report quarterly results after markets

close, said it will also collaborate with May Mobility to deploy

self-driving taxis in Atlanta starting next year.

It will also work with Nexar, which designs products that

improve driving by using machine learning and computer vision,

to explore how the companies can bolster research and

development in the autonomous vehicle industry using Lyft's ( LYFT )

fleet data and the technology firm's bank of vehicle video

footage.

Lyft's ( LYFT ) series of agreements follows market leader Uber's ( UBER )

expansion of partnership with Alphabet's Waymo and new

deals General Motors' ( GM ) Cruise and China's WeRide ( WRD )

among others to cement its lead in the robotaxi segment.

Analysts and industry experts have cautioned that

developing autonomous driving systems and robotaxis will be

challenging and time-consuming due to engineering and regulatory

hurdles.

Electric vehicle maker Tesla last month unveiled

its Cybercab robotaxi concept, slated for production in 2026,

and has begun testing ridehail services with employees in San

Francisco.