July 15 (Reuters) - Uber ( UBER ) and China's Baidu ( BIDU )

will partner to deploy thousands of Baidu's ( BIDU ) Apollo Go

autonomous vehicles on the Uber ( UBER ) platform across several

international markets outside the U.S. and mainland China, the

companies said on Tuesday.

The first rollouts are expected in Asia and the Middle East

later this year.

The tie-up brings together Uber's ( UBER ) massive ride-hailing

network with Baidu's ( BIDU ) fleet of more than 1,000 fully driverless

vehicles across the world.

It is the latest in a series of efforts by Uber ( UBER ) to compete

in the burgeoning market as tech companies race to overcome

regulatory and engineering hurdles to deploy self-driving taxis

at a commercial scale.

Last month, Uber ( UBER ) launched autonomous ride-hailing services

in Atlanta, expanding its partnership with Alphabet's

Waymo, while also signing deals with autonomous vehicle

companies including Pony AI and May Mobility.

Tesla rolled out its long-awaited robotaxis in

Austin, Texas last month, in their first public test.

Meanwhile, China's robotaxi firms have been increasingly

eyeing global expansion; Apollo Go is now present in 15 cities,

including Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and, as of May, had completed

more than 11 million rides.

In May, Pony AI became the third Chinese autonomous

vehicle company after Baidu ( BIDU ) and WeRide ( WRD ) to unveil an

agreement to deploy its vehicles in the Middle East.

Robin Li, co-founder and CEO of Baidu ( BIDU ), said on Tuesday that

"the partnership with Uber ( UBER ) represents a major milestone in

deploying our technology on a global scale."

Baidu ( BIDU ) has been running its Apollo Go robotaxi services

commercially in several Chinese cities since 2022.