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BEIJING, April 1 (Reuters) – A “system failure” caused a robotaxi outage involving multiple vehicles operated by Baidu’s Apollo Go in central \u200cChina’s Wuhan, local police said on Wednesday, re-igniting safety concerns over \u200cthe fast-growing service.<\/p>\n
Police received reports late on Tuesday that numerous Apollo Go cars had \u200bstopped in the middle of roads in Wuhan and were unable to move, according to an official statement.<\/p>\n
Passengers were able to exit the vehicles safely and there were no injuries, police said.<\/p>\n
The cause of the incident is \u200cstill under investigation.<\/p>\n
At least \u2060100 Apollo Go vehicles were affected, a traffic police officer said in a video published by Shanghai-based news \u2060outlet The Paper. The officer added that while the car doors could be opened, some passengers were hesitant to get out because of heavy traffic \u200band called \u200bpolice for assistance.<\/p>\n
Local media reported that \u200bsome passengers were trapped inside \u200cthe vehicles for nearly two hours.<\/p>\n
Baidu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
The accident sparked renewed discussions on Chinese social media about robotaxi safety and readiness.<\/p>\n
An Apollo Go robotaxi carrying a passenger fell into a construction pit in Chongqing in August, and in May one \u200cof the cars operated by Pony.ai caught \u200bfire on a road in Beijing. No \u200binjuries were reported in \u200beither incident.<\/p>\n
A widespread power outage in San Francisco at \u200cthe end of last year also \u200bcaused Waymo robotaxis to \u200bstall and snarl traffic.<\/p>\n
Baidu is one of China’s largest operators of autonomous driving fleets, alongside Pony.ai and WeRide. The companies have \u200brolled out commercial robotaxi \u200cservices across major Chinese cities and have expanded operations into \u200boverseas markets, including the Middle East.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li and \u200bRyan Woo; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n