Baidu Robotaxis Freeze in Traffic, Trapping Passengers in Major Chinese City

Apr 1, 2026

Multiple Baidu Apollo Go robotaxis simultaneously froze in the middle of streets in Wuhan, China on Tuesday, trapping passengers inside vehicles and creating traffic chaos in the major city. Wuhan police received numerous reports of the stranded autonomous vehicles, with preliminary investigations pointing to an unspecified system failure as the cause. The outage stranded passengers on highways and caused at least one accident in the resulting traffic congestion, though no injuries were reported. The incident represents a significant operational failure for Baidu's autonomous vehicle program and raises questions about the reliability of self-driving taxi services operating at scale in Chinese cities.

Baidu robotaxi system failure and traffic disruption

▪The Baidu robotaxi outage caused at least one accident in snarled traffic.
▪Baidu Apollo Go robotaxis stopped in the middle of streets in Wuhan and were unable to move.
▪Wuhan police preliminary investigations suggest an unspecified system failure is responsible for the Baidu robotaxi outage.
▪Numerous Baidu robotaxis froze in a major Chinese city on Tuesday.

Passenger safety concerns and emergency response

▪No injuries have been reported from the Baidu robotaxi outage in Wuhan.
▪Baidu robotaxis trapped passengers inside during the Tuesday outage.
▪Wuhan police received multiple reports of Baidu Apollo Go robotaxis stopping in the middle of streets.

Perspective of Baidu

▪Baidu operates the Apollo Go robotaxi service that experienced widespread system failures in Wuhan on Tuesday.
▪Baidu's robotaxi malfunction represents a significant setback for autonomous vehicle deployment in China.

Perspective of Autonomous vehicle safety advocates

▪The Baidu robotaxi incident demonstrates the risks of deploying autonomous vehicles without adequate redundancy systems.
▪Simultaneous failures across multiple Baidu robotaxis suggest systemic vulnerabilities in autonomous vehicle fleet management.