Baidu Robotaxis Freeze in Wuhan, Snarling Traffic
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- Baidu's Apollo Go robotaxis froze in the middle of streets across Wuhan on Tuesday, trapping passengers inside and stranding vehicles on highways
- The outage caused at least one accident in snarled traffic, though Wuhan police said no injuries were reported
- Wuhan police confirmed receiving multiple reports and said preliminary investigations point to an unspecified 'system failure'
- Local news reports cited by Reuters indicate at least 100 robotaxis were affected out of more than 500 Baidu has deployed in the city
- The incident has reignited debate over self-driving car safety in China, one of the world's most aggressive adopters of the technology
- Baidu operates robotaxis in 26 cities worldwide, including partnerships with Uber in London and Dubai
Why it matters: The freeze hit Baidu in its largest robotaxi hub, with at least 100 of 500+ Wuhan vehicles going dark simultaneously. For China's most aggressive self-driving rollout, a mass simultaneous failure — not a single-car mishap — reframes the safety debate from individual error to systemic vulnerability.
