A “system malfunction” has prompted a number of self-driving robotaxis to stall in the midst of the highway in China, police have confirmed, after distressed riders have been stranded for hours.
Native authorities within the central Chinese language metropolis of Wuhan stated they started receiving calls “one after one other” on Tuesday night time from riders reporting that autonomous automobiles operated by the Chinese language web firm Baidu had frozen.
“A number of Apollo Go vehicles stopped in the midst of the highway, unable to maneuver,” police stated in a press release on Wednesday, referring to Baidu’s driverless taxi service. “After investigation, preliminary findings counsel the trigger was system malfunction.”
Baidu has a fleet of greater than 500 driverless vehicles in Wuhan. The assertion didn’t specify what number of vehicles have been concerned within the sysem malfunction.
One rider, recounting their 90-minute ordeal on the Chinese language social media platform RedNote, stated their automobile broke down on an elevated freeway in Wuhan at 9pm native time.
“I referred to as robotaxi’s customer support, however couldn’t get by means of at first. After calling repeatedly, everybody I referred to as stated they’d dispatched a specialist,” the consumer stated. “After 10.30pm, my order was cancelled, and I used to be caught on the overpass with dump vehicles throughout me.”
The rider was finally rescued, however accused Apollo Go customer support brokers of offering “ineffective platitudes” as an alternative of “options for dealing with such an emergency”.
Riders additionally uploaded footage of the incident to social media platforms, together with one consumer who posted a video with the caption “Apollo Go, are you paralysed?” of their unsuccessful makes an attempt to succeed in the corporate from an in-car pill.
This isn’t the primary incident involving Baidu’s robotaxis. Final December, authorities within the metropolis of Zhuzhou suspended robotaxi operations after a Baidu-produced autonomous automobile ran over two pedestrians, placing them in intensive care.
Baidu, China’s equal to Google, opened Apollo Go to the general public in Beijing in late 2020 and now operates in designated areas throughout a number of Chinese language cities.
It supplied 3.4m driverless rides within the fourth quarter of 2025, in response to firm filings, with complete rides growing by greater than 200% in contrast with the identical interval in 2024.
Extra not too long ago, it has introduced offers with the rideshare apps Lyft and Uber to deploy its autonomous automobiles on their platforms because it seems to be to broaden its presence outdoors China.
Baidu didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, Reuters reported.
Extra reporting by Yu-chen Li
