(Yicai) May 6 -- Shares of WeRide dropped after the Chinese developer of autonomous driving technologies and Uber Technologies agreed to deepen their alliance and deploy robotaxi services in 15 additional cities globally over the next five years, including some in Europe.

WeRide [NASDAQ: WRD] closed 6.8 percent lower at USD6.85 a share yesterday.

WeRide and Uber will expand their self-driving vehicle partnership to several new cities outside the US and China each year, the pair announced separately yesterday. The Guangzhou-based firm's robotaxi services will be available on the Uber app, while the ride-hailing giant will be responsible for fleet operations, they added.

Last September, WeRide and Uber signed a deal to bring autonomous vehicles to the latter's ride-hailing platform. The pair first launched a robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi in December, with the fleet expected to reach 50 autos by the middle of this year, followed by Dubai last month.

WeRide has conducted research, development, testing, and operations of self-driving tech in 30 cities across 10 countries worldwide. It is the only company in the world with autonomous driving licenses in five countries: China, the UAE, Singapore, France, and the US.

Editor: Martin Kadiev