Several passengers of China’s driverless robotaxis were stranded inside their cars for over 90 minutes after their vehicle abruptly came to a halt in the middle of the road, in one of the latest reported fleet-wide outages of Chinese tech giant Baidu.
Police in China’s central city of Wuhan said a “system malfunction” caused more than 100 Apollo Go self-driving taxis to freeze in traffic.
Photos and videos shared widely across Chinese social media platforms showed robotaxis standing in the middle of the road with their hazard lights on late at night on Tuesday.
Many cars were seen stranded in the fast lane of the busy highways, prompting concerns.
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Police on Wednesday said they received numerous reports of many Apollo Go cars coming to a stop from 8.56pm in the middle of roads and were unable to move, according to an official statement.
Passengers were able to exit the vehicles safely and there were no injuries, police said.
Police said the cause of the incident is under investigation, adding that public security traffic management and transportation departments quickly mobilised forces to the scene to handle the situation.
Baidu, which is a major Chinese multinational technology company, often called the "Google of China”, has an autonomous ride-hailing service, Apollo Go. Also known as Radish Run, it operates across 22 Chinese cities, with over 1,000 vehicles in Wuhan alone. It has also expanded operations into overseas markets, including the Middle East.
Dashcam footage recorded by a driver showed his car passing at least 16 Apollo Go vehicles that stood frozen on the road in the span of 90minutes. The driver narrowly avoided getting into a collision with the stranded vehicles by changing lanes at the last minute or hard-braking.
A college student in Wuhan who had boarded the robotaxi on that day with her two friends said that they were stuck for about 90 minutes.
She told Wired, an American print magazine, that the taxi malfunctioned and halted at least four times during the trip before coming to a standstill in front of an intersection in eastern Wuhan.
She said the screen display asked them to remain in the car and wait for help from the company representative within five minutes.
She said they were able to connect with a Baidu representative after 30 minutes but they “kept saying it would be reported to their superior” and the help never came till they left. The Independent has contacted Baidu for a comment.
She said they did not explain the cause of the outage and they just left after some time.
Another passenger name Ms Zhou said she saw a message on the screen at 8.30pm, which said, "There is a problem with the vehicle, please do not open the door”, according to TMT Post, a Chinese news website.
Ms Zhou said the car came to a halt just ten minutes into the journey on an overpass with traffic rushing past the car. She said the emergency contact number mentioned inside the car could not be reached.
She said she waited for more than an hour before a police officer passing by helped her.
The mass outage prompted many users on social media to share videos and their stories on social media, with many raising concerns over the safety of such cars.
In August, an Apollo Go robotaxi carrying a passenger fell into a construction pit in Chongqing. Earlier in May one of the cars operated by Pony.ai caught fire on a road in Beijing. No injuries were reported in either incident.
A widespread power outage in San Francisco at the end of last year also caused Waymo robotaxis to stall and snarl traffic.
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