Robot taxis in China got stranded due to a system problem.

A group of autonomous robotaxis operating in China has reportedly stopped midway on the road due to an emergency system error. As a result, passengers traveling in these vehicles faced severe inconvenience, and the country's police have confirmed that they were stranded in those locations for several hours.

This incident is reported from Wuhan city in central China. Local authorities state that on Tuesday night, they continuously received phone calls from passengers reporting that these driverless vehicles, belonging to Chinese internet giant Baidu, had suddenly become inoperable. A police statement issued on Wednesday indicated that several cars belonging to Baidu's 'Apollo Go' service were thus stranded in the middle of the road, unable to move, and preliminary investigations suggest the cause was a system malfunction.

Baidu operates over 500 driverless vehicles in Wuhan alone, but it has not been specified how many vehicles were affected by this malfunction. One passenger who experienced this incident described their experience on the Chinese social media platform 'RedNote,' stating that their vehicle suddenly stopped on an elevated highway in Wuhan around 9 PM local time. Attempts to contact customer service were initially unsuccessful, and subsequently, each time they connected, they were only told that a specialist had been dispatched. However, the passenger further stated that their order was canceled around 10:30 PM, and by then, they were still stranded on the highway amidst large trucks.

Although authorities eventually managed to rescue the passenger, he accuses 'Apollo Go' customer service representatives of using only empty words instead of providing a proper solution during such an emergency. Additionally, other passengers released videos related to this incident on social media, one of which shows an unsuccessful attempt to contact the company via the tablet computer in the car. A sarcastic caption was also added to that video, asking, "Apollo Go, are you paralyzed?"

This is not the first time such a controversial incident has been reported concerning Baidu's robotaxi service. Last December, authorities took steps to suspend its robotaxi operations in Zhuzhou city after two pedestrians were admitted to the intensive care unit following a collision with an autonomously driven Baidu vehicle. Baidu, often compared to America's Google, launched its 'Apollo Go' service in Beijing in late 2020 and has since expanded it to numerous cities across China.

According to company reports, they provided 3.4 million driverless rides in the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, which is a growth of over 200% compared to the corresponding period in 2024. Furthermore, with the aim of expanding their business operations outside China, they recently entered into agreements with transportation service apps Lyft and Uber for the deployment of their autonomous vehicles. (Source: The Guardian)