Wuhan robotaxi failure rattles Baidu ambitions

Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxi service suffered a sharp setback in Wuhan after a system failure caused more than 100 driverless taxis to stop on roads across the city late on March 31, stranding passengers, disrupting traffic and triggering a wave of police calls that has revived scrutiny of autonomous vehicle safety in China’s biggest testing grounds. Police said no injuries were reported, but the scale of the stoppage and the time some passengers spent trapped inside vehicles have raised fresh questions about operational resilience in a business that has been pushing hard towards mass deployment.

Authorities in Wuhan said calls began coming in one after another after multiple Apollo Go cars were found motionless in the middle of roads and unable to move. Reuters reported that passengers were able to leave the vehicles safely, though some hesitated because they were surrounded by moving traffic, while others remained stranded for up to two hours. Wired, citing passengers and social media posts, said some riders were stuck for more than an hour and complained that customer service and in-car emergency functions were difficult to access at the height of the malfunction.

The episode matters well beyond one evening’s disruption because Wuhan is central to Baidu’s autonomous driving story. The city has been one of Apollo Go’s most important operating bases, with broader road access than many pilot zones and routes that include high-speed roads and airport corridors. That wider operating canvas has helped make Wuhan a showcase for what Chinese robotaxi companies argue is a maturing commercial model, but it also means failures can play out in more complex and risk-laden traffic environments than tightly controlled urban districts.

For Baidu, the timing is awkward. Apollo Go has been presented as one of China’s leading robotaxi platforms, and Reuters has reported that the service operates more than 1,000 vehicles across 15 cities globally and has completed more than 11 million rides. The company first moved into paid driverless ride-hailing in Beijing in 2021 and has since used fleet expansion, falling vehicle costs and widening regulatory acceptance to position itself as a front-runner in the race to commercialise autonomous transport.

That growth story has come with mounting pressure to prove that scale does not outpace safety. Wednesday’s reports described the Wuhan stoppage as a “system failure”, while other accounts cited customer service explanations pointing to network issues. Baidu had not publicly explained the outage in the reporting surveyed, leaving a gap between the police account and the company’s own version of events. That absence is notable in a sector where public trust depends not only on safety performance, but on how quickly operators explain failures, assist passengers and show that faults have been isolated.

The Wuhan freeze also lands against a backdrop of earlier incidents that have unsettled confidence in China’s autonomous driving sector. Reuters reported in August 2025 that a Baidu robotaxi carrying a passenger fell into a construction pit in Chongqing, although the rider was not injured. In a separate case in May 2025, Pony. ai said one of its autonomous vehicles caught fire after a malfunction, again with no injuries reported. None of these incidents alone proves systemic unreliability, but together they complicate the industry’s claim that commercial robotaxi services are moving from experimental novelty to dependable public transport option.

The broader market, however, is still moving quickly. Chinese autonomous driving groups including Baidu, Pony. ai and WeRide have been expanding at home while also seeking overseas openings. Reuters reported in March that Pony. ai plans to more than double its robotaxi fleet to over 3,000 vehicles across more than 20 global cities this year, including international expansion. Baidu, meanwhile, has pursued partnerships and overseas tests that underline how high the commercial stakes have become. Investors and regulators are therefore likely to view the Wuhan disruption not as an isolated local problem, but as a test of whether the sector’s safety systems, remote support and emergency protocols are keeping pace with ambition.