Robotaxis run by Baidu’s Apollo Go experienced a shutdown in Wuhan, China, leaving passengers stranded for up to two hours, according to various reports and social media posts.
Baidu has not disclosed the reason for the outage. Local police cited a “system failure” affecting at least 100 robotaxis, as reported by Reuters. The unidentified technical issue led to robotaxis stopping suddenly, sometimes in hazardous locations like the fast lane, according to Wired. Police continue to investigate.
Baidu did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
Baidu, a leading robotaxi operator in China, is also expanding to the Middle East. The company announced plans to deploy over 1,000 autonomous vehicles in Dubai in the upcoming years.
This Baidu outage raises further safety concerns about robotaxis. These issues aren’t confined to China. Last December, a power outage in California disrupted traffic lights, causing Waymo vehicles to halt, as per TechCrunch.