Baidu robotaxi system malfunction strands over 100 vehicles in Wuhan traffic

Police in Wuhan said they received numerous reports starting around 9 p.m. of many Apollo Go cars coming to a stop in the middle of roads and being unable to move. Public security traffic management and transportation departments quickly mobilized forces to the scene to handle the situation, according to the police. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a system malfunction, and the cause of the incident is under investigation.

Passengers described being trapped in their vehicles with varying experiences. According to The Independent - Main, a college student in Wuhan with two friends was stuck in a robotaxi for about 90 minutes, and the student described the taxi malfunctioning and halting at least four times during the trip before coming to a standstill in front of an intersection in eastern Wuhan. The student also described the screen display asking them to remain in the car and wait for help from the company representative within five minutes, and after connecting with a Baidu representative after 30 minutes, the help never came until they left, with Baidu not explaining the cause of the outage. In another account, according to The Independent - Main, Ms. Zhou described seeing a message on the screen at 8:30 p.m. saying there was a problem with the vehicle and advising not to open the door, with her car coming to a halt just ten minutes into the journey on an overpass with traffic rushing past, and the emergency contact number mentioned inside the car could not be reached.

Additional passenger accounts highlighted self-rescue efforts. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner, and according to The Independent - Main, the passenger described an instruction on a screen reading that staff were expected to arrive in five minutes. After no one showed up, the passenger pushed an SOS button and was told that staff were on their way, and the car door could be opened, so the passenger got out on their own. While some passengers were able to exit their taxis on their own, others were afraid to get out because their vehicle had stopped in the middle lane of a ring road with other vehicles passing on both sides, multiple reports indicate.

Photos and videos shared widely across Chinese social media platforms showed robotaxis standing in the middle of the road with their hazard lights on late at night on Tuesday. Many cars were stranded in the fast lane of busy highways, prompting concerns, and dashcam footage recorded by a driver showed his car passing at least 16 Apollo Go vehicles that stood frozen on the road in the span of 90 minutes. The driver narrowly avoided collisions with stranded vehicles by changing lanes at the last minute or hard-braking, according to multiple reports.

Police in Wuhan confirmed that passengers were able to exit the vehicles safely and there were no injuries. No injuries were reported, and media reports said multiple people were rescued. The exact number of passengers affected by the robotaxi shutdown in total remains unclear, and it is not known whether there were any traffic accidents or near-misses directly caused by the stranded robotaxis.

Baidu's Apollo Go autonomous ride-hailing service operates across 22 Chinese cities, with over 1,000 vehicles in Wuhan alone. Baidu operates hundreds of robotaxis in Wuhan, which hosted an early pilot project for the company, and the company operates more than 1,000 robotaxis, mostly in China, and started a service in Abu Dhabi and Dubai this year. Baidu is working with partners to launch service in Britain and Switzerland, according to multiple reports.

Baidu did not have any immediate comment on the incident. The specific technical issue that caused the system malfunction in Baidu's Apollo Go robotaxis is under investigation, and it is unknown what measures Baidu is taking to prevent similar incidents in the future or when findings from the investigation will be released.