Multiple Baidu Robotaxis Disable Mid-Traffic in Wuhan, Stranding Passengers For Hours
An unidentified technical glitch left dozens of autonomous robotaxis owned by Chinese tech giant Baidu immobilized mid-traffic this Tuesday, stranding multiple passengers inside the vehicles for more than an hour.
Baidu has deployed hundreds of its Apollo Go self-driving taxis across Wuhan, a major city in central China, and users on local Chinese social media first shared reports of the vehicles suddenly malfunctioning and shutting down mid-operation. Images and clips shared online show the stationary Baidu vehicles halted on busy public roads, with many stuck in the left fast lane of major highways.
A Wuhan-based college student who spoke to WIRED on condition of only being identified by her surname He (to protect her privacy) shared that she and two friends were trapped in a Baidu robotaxi for roughly 90 minutes that day. He explained the vehicle malfunctioned and stopped four to five times over the course of their trip before it finally became permanently stuck at an intersection in eastern Wuhan. The group avoided immediate danger, as the intersection saw relatively little traffic at the time.
Per a photo He shared with WIRED, the in-car display instructed passengers to stay in the vehicle with their seatbelts fastened, and promised a company representative would arrive “in five minutes.” He said it took her 30 minutes just to connect with a Baidu customer service agent over the phone. “They kept saying they would escalate the issue to their superior, but they never explained what caused the outage, nor could they tell us how long we would have to wait for staff to arrive,” He recalled. No representative ever showed up, and after waiting another full hour, the three passengers exited the vehicle on their own — the doors had not locked.
Other stranded passengers took to Chinese social media to share similar complaints about being unable to reach Baidu’s customer support. One user posted a clip of a non-functional SOS button to the local platform RedNote, writing: “I tried every contact option listed in the app to call for help, but the phone line would not connect, and when I pressed the SOS button it just told me the service was unavailable. What is the SOS even for then?” This user said she had to force the vehicle door open to escape, after all traffic behind her immobilized robotaxi came to a complete stop. “Apollo Go, you really owe me an apology,” she wrote.
Baidu did not issue an immediate response to requests for comment on the incident. Local Wuhan police released a statement around midnight China time noting the disruption was “likely caused by a system malfunction,” adding that the incident remains under active investigation. No injuries were reported, and all passengers have exited the affected vehicles, police confirmed.
The total number of Baidu robotaxis impacted by the glitch remains unclear. One dashcam recording posted to RedNote shows a driver passing 16 stationary Apollo Go vehicles along a single route over a 90-minute window. The video captures multiple moments where the driver has to brake hard or change lanes at the last second to avoid hitting the stopped robotaxis.
Not all drivers managed to avoid collision with the stranded vehicles. In another RedNote post, a driver claimed he crashed into one of the malfunctioning Baidu vehicles. He wrote that he was traveling at more than 40 mph on a highway when the car ahead of him suddenly swerved to avoid the stopped robotaxi, and he could not react fast enough to avoid hitting it. Photos of the driver’s orange SUV being towed show its front-right fender was completely torn off, with major damage to other front-end components.
At least two other collisions were reported the same day in photos and videos shared to Chinese social media. A RedNote user in Wuhan confirmed to WIRED that she passed the scene of a rear-end crash between a white minivan and a parked robotaxi. The back of the Baidu vehicle was heavily damaged, but the two people at the scene appeared uninjured, she said, adding that she counted at least a dozen other stationary robotaxis along the same road.
Baidu is one of China’s leading self-driving technology firms, having launched commercial robotaxi services in more than a dozen Chinese cities to date, and recently expanded its international footprint to locations including Seoul, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai. In February, the company announced it had completed 20 million passenger rides across a total distance of more than 300 million kilometers (around 186 million miles). Wuhan has been one of the most progressive Chinese cities in permitting Baidu to operate fully autonomous vehicles on public roads, allowing the robotaxis to run on highways and provide service to the city’s airport.
