On Tuesday, passengers in the central Chinese city of Wuhan experienced a widespread malfunction of Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxis, leaving some stranded on highways for over an hour. The incident, which involved multiple vehicles freezing in traffic – often in fast lanes – sparked significant complaints on Chinese social media.
A college student, identified only as He, reported being stuck in a malfunctioning robotaxi with two friends for 90 minutes. The vehicle stopped operating repeatedly before parking in an intersection. Despite assurances from Baidu’s customer service that assistance would arrive “in five minutes,” no help materialized. After an hour of waiting, the passengers exited the vehicle independently, finding the doors unlocked.
Other passengers reported similar difficulties contacting support, with in-app SOS features failing to function. One user described being forced to manually open a door as traffic came to a standstill behind the immobilized robotaxi. Baidu did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Local police confirmed a “system malfunction” as the likely cause but stated the incident remains under investigation. While no injuries were reported, dashcam footage shows at least 16 Apollo Go vehicles parked on roads within a 90-minute span, with drivers narrowly avoiding collisions. One driver reportedly crashed into a malfunctioning robotaxi while attempting to avoid it, resulting in significant vehicle damage.
The incident highlights the risks of relying on autonomous systems and raises questions about the reliability of Baidu’s robotaxi fleet. The widespread nature of the outage suggests a broader technical issue rather than isolated incidents. Until the root cause is addressed, passengers may hesitate to trust these vehicles, potentially hindering the expansion of robotaxi services.
