Wuhan is one of the largest testing grounds for the Apollo Go robotaxi service from China's Baidu. Local taxi drivers even expressed their A mass protest against the introduction of robotaxis, which is already putting them out of business. This week, customers of the service found themselves caught in a technical glitch that forced several vehicles to a halt in the middle of busy streets, with passengers formally prohibited from leaving the vehicle for more than an hour.
According to eyewitnesses, whose comments on Chinese social media were cited by Wired, an unknown technical issue has affected some of the hundreds of Apollo Go self-driving taxis that serve passengers in Wuhan. One student who used the robotaxi service yesterday said Wired The story of her imprisonment due to this technical malfunction. She was traveling in a driverless taxi with two other friends, but the car stopped four or five times along the route for no apparent reason, eventually parking at an intersection in the east of the city. Fortunately, it wasn't particularly busy, so the passengers' safety wasn't particularly threatened. In any case, the trio had to spend about 90 minutes in the car, despite the central display displaying a notification that a Baidu representative would arrive within five minutes. Passengers were also required to remain seatbelted and not leave the car without prior notice.
It took half an hour to reach Baidu's hotline. The operator promised to report the problem to higher-ups, but no one could explain to the stranded passengers how long they would have to wait for help or why the robotaxi had stopped. After waiting another hour, the passengers decided to leave the vehicle themselves, as the doors weren't locked.
Other eyewitnesses to the widespread outage claimed they were unable to reach Baidu support specialists via the hotline or in-app chat, and even the SOS button inside the vehicle didn't work properly. Some passengers were then forced to abandon their vehicles, which were frozen in heavy traffic. According to the Wuhan Police Department, an as-yet-undetermined technical issue caused Apollo Go robotaxis to stop operating yesterday, but all passengers managed to exit the vehicles themselves, and no incidents or injuries were reported. The number of robotaxis temporarily out of service in Wuhan is unknown. However, videos published by eyewitnesses show accidents caused by stopped robotaxis, which drivers of other vehicles managed to avoid at the last moment.
There were also reports of property damage caused by a sudden robotaxi malfunction in Wuhan. One victim reported that he was driving his car on the highway at approximately 40 mph (65 km/h) when the car in front of him abruptly changed lanes to avoid a collision with the robotaxi that had suddenly stopped. The driver of the second car simply didn't have time to react and applied emergency braking, although he was unable to avoid the collision. As a result of the collision between his SUV and the rear of the robotaxi, the front of the victim's car was severely damaged, forcing a tow truck to be called. At least two other similar accidents involving suddenly stopped robotaxi have been reported. No one was injured in either.
Baidu already offers robotaxi services in more than 12 cities in China and is expanding internationally to South Korea and the UAE. As of February 2026, these self-driving taxis have traveled over 300 million kilometers and completed over 20 million trips. In Wuhan itself, robotaxi services are available not only in the central districts but also on expressways, including the one leading to and from the airport.
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Source: 3dnews.ru
