Robotaxi chaos in China as Baidu cars stall mid-traffic after system glitch

Multiple Baidu robotaxis stopped suddenly on Wuhan roads after a system failure, leaving passengers stranded and disrupting traffic in the city

Multiple robotaxis operated by Chinese tech major Baidu reportedly stopped in the middle of busy roads in Wuhan on Tuesday, leaving passengers stranded inside vehicles and causing traffic disruptions, Reuters reported.

 

Local police said on Wednesday that a “system failure” led to the outage involving several vehicles run by Baidu’s autonomous ride-hailing service Apollo Go.

 

Vehicles stalled in the middle of roads

 

Reports came in late on Tuesday that at least 100 Apollo Go robotaxis had halted in the middle of roads in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and were unable to move.

 

While the car doors could be opened, some passengers hesitated to leave the vehicles because of heavy traffic and called the police for help, the Reuters report said.

 

 

Wuhan hosts the largest deployment of Apollo Go robotaxis in China, with more than 1,000 fully driverless vehicles operating across the city.

 

Safety concerns resurface

 

The incident triggered fresh debate on social media over the safety and readiness of autonomous ride-hailing services.

 

Similar cases have been reported earlier. In August last year, an Apollo Go robotaxi carrying a passenger fell into a construction pit in the city of Chongqing. In May, a driverless car operated by Pony.ai caught fire on a road in Beijing.

 

In the US, a large power outage in San Francisco late last year also caused robotaxis operated by Waymo to stop and disrupt traffic.   

 

Global rollout gathers pace

 

Apollo Go already runs commercial driverless ride-hailing services in several major Chinese cities, including across Wuhan and in parts of Beijing.

 

The company is also testing robotaxi services in Western markets. The robotaxi brand has partnered with ride-hailing platforms Uber and Lyft to test autonomous vehicles in London.

 

The service has also expanded in West Asia. Apollo Go launched fully autonomous ride-hailing operations in Abu Dhabi with local partner AutoGo. It has also received the first permit for fully driverless testing in Dubai and recently began offering robotaxi rides there through the Uber app, CNBC reported.

 

Baidu said Apollo Go vehicles have travelled more than 300 million kilometres autonomously so far. Of this, over 190 million kilometres were completed without a human safety driver inside the vehicle.

 

Rapid expansion of robotaxi industry

 

Baidu is one of the largest operators of autonomous vehicle fleets in China. It competes with companies such as Pony.ai and WeRide. These firms have launched commercial robotaxi services in several major Chinese cities and are now expanding to international markets.

 

Baidu has invested heavily in its driverless ride-hailing service Apollo Go. The move is similar to how US tech giant Alphabet Inc. has expanded its robotaxi platform Waymo across parts of the western US. Both companies are now considered among the key players in the fast-growing autonomous mobility sector, CNBC reported.