Over 100 Baidu Robotaxis Freeze Mid-Traffic in Wuhan, Stranding Passengers for Hours

What Happened

On the evening of March 31, 2026, beginning around 9:00 p.m. local time, Wuhan police began receiving a "succession" of reports that Apollo Go robotaxis had stopped moving in the middle of roads, according to an official statement from Wuhan public security authorities. The vehicles — operated by Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service Apollo Go — came to sudden halts on elevated ring roads and main thoroughfares across the central Chinese city.

A traffic police officer confirmed in a video published by Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper that at least 100 Apollo Go vehicles were affected. Police said passengers were ultimately able to exit the vehicles safely and no injuries were reported, but the incidents unfolded over the course of hours and left passengers stranded in dangerous conditions — some on fast-moving expressways with heavy traffic on both sides.

Wuhan police attributed the mass stoppage to a "system failure," without providing further technical detail. Baidu did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters or the Associated Press as of publication. The cause of the incident remains under investigation, police said.

The Human Experience Inside the Cars

Local reporting from DuTe News, cited by Car News China, gathered firsthand accounts that paint a harrowing picture. One passenger, identified as Mr. Lu, described being trapped on the Third Ring Road — an elevated highway — for close to two hours, with large trucks speeding past on both sides of the stalled vehicle. Lu said the in-car SOS button was "completely useless" and calls made via the backseat screen were automatically disconnected. When he reached Baidu's 400 customer service hotline, he was told a specialist was being dispatched; no one arrived for nearly an hour. Police and Apollo Go staff eventually reached him around 11:00 p.m.

Another passenger, identified by the pseudonym Ms. Zhou, said her vehicle began displaying a warning about a vehicle problem shortly after departing. "The car kept displaying a warning about a vehicle problem, advising not to open the door," she told DuTe News. The car stopped on an elevated highway. After a prolonged wait, passing traffic police noticed her and helped her off the road. Despite the ordeal, she was charged the full fare.

One passenger told the Associated Press that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. A screen message read: "Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes." After no staff arrived, the passenger pushed an SOS button, was again told someone was on the way, and ultimately exited on their own through the unlocked door.

A video verified by Reuters and posted on Douyin (TikTok's Chinese version) showed vehicles stalled on busy roads and obstructing other traffic. Photos on Chinese social media showed at least one Apollo Go car that had stopped in the middle of a highway and appeared to have been struck from behind by an SUV, with considerable damage to the SUV's front right corner.

Baidu's Apollo Go: Scale and Context

Wuhan has become one of the world's most intensive real-world testing grounds for autonomous vehicles. Baidu operates hundreds of Apollo Go robotaxis in the city, where they have become a common sight and are available for commercial public use. As of October 2025, Apollo Go had expanded its autonomous driving testing and commercial operations to overseas locations, including in Europe and the Middle East, according to Car News China.

This is the first time a mass shutdown of robotaxis has been reported in China at this scale, according to the Associated Press. The incident also prompted renewed discussion on Chinese social media about autonomous vehicle safety and regulatory readiness.

It is not the first safety incident for Baidu's robotaxi operations. In August 2025, an Apollo Go robotaxi carrying a passenger fell into a construction pit in Chongqing. In December 2025, a Baidu robotaxi operated by Hello was involved in an accident in Zhuzhou, which led local government authorities to suspend robotaxi operations in that city. In May 2025, a Pony.ai robotaxi caught fire on a road in Beijing. Reuters noted no injuries were reported in those incidents.

Comparison to the Waymo San Francisco Outage

The Wuhan event has drawn comparisons to a December 2025 incident in San Francisco, where Waymo's self-driving fleet stalled across the city during a widespread power outage. The New York Times noted that robot taxis are typically programmed to stop if they encounter a completely unfamiliar situation — but the Wuhan incident appears to differ in that the stoppage was caused by a Baidu-side "system failure," not external infrastructure. Apollo Go customer service attributed the failure to "network issues," according to Car News China, though no official Baidu statement confirmed this characterization.

The key distinction: in the Waymo case, the trigger was external (a city-wide power grid event). In Wuhan, the failure appears to have been internal to Baidu's autonomous driving software or connectivity infrastructure — and it occurred on elevated ring roads where stopping mid-lane carries significantly higher danger than stopping on a city street.

Regulatory and Industry Implications

China has moved aggressively to position itself as the global leader in autonomous vehicle deployment. Wuhan, Beijing, Guangzhou, and several other cities have authorized large-scale commercial robotaxi operations. Baidu, alongside Pony.ai and WeRide, is among the country's largest operators of autonomous driving fleets.

The March 31 incident is likely to intensify scrutiny from Chinese regulators who have been calibrating how quickly to expand autonomous vehicle permissions. The Zhuzhou suspension after the December 2025 Baidu accident set a precedent for local governments halting operations after safety incidents. Whether Wuhan authorities take similar action following this mass outage remains to be seen.

For Baidu specifically, the episode carries reputational weight beyond China's borders. The company has been actively marketing Apollo Go to international partners as it seeks commercial expansion in the Middle East and Europe. A mass paralysis event — especially one that left passengers stranded in dangerous traffic situations with no functional emergency exit process for nearly two hours — raises direct questions about the robustness of emergency response protocols, connectivity redundancy, and fail-safe design.

What We Don't Know Yet

As of publication, Baidu had not released a public statement explaining the root cause of the failure. Police described it as a "system failure" under investigation. The full count of affected vehicles has not been officially confirmed beyond "at least 100." It is also unclear whether any regulatory action — suspensions, audits, or mandatory reviews — has been initiated in response to the incident.