System failure at Baidu stops robotaxis on the street in Wuhan

On the evening of March 31 (local time), autonomous taxis from the Chinese internet group Baidu failed in Wuhan. The cause was presumably a system failure at Baidu.

At least 100 taxis from the Apollo Go service in the capital of the central Chinese province of Hubei were affected, reports the British news agency Reuters. Local police confirmed the incident via the Weibo microblogging service.

The vehicles then stopped in the middle of the street and could no longer be moved. According to the police, however, the passengers were not trapped in the vehicles but could get out without help. However, some passengers were hesitant to do so in the middle of traffic and received help from police officers.

Rear-end collisions, but no injuries

The situation was not entirely safe: there were rear-end collisions after the robotaxis stopped unexpectedly, as can be seen in the video posted by user Zeyi Yang on the X microblogging service. However, according to the police, no one was injured.

The cause of the breakdown is still unclear. The police wrote that it was likely a system failure. The cause is being further investigated. Baidu itself has not yet commented.

The internet group Baidu, which operates China's largest search engine among other things, is one of the largest providers of autonomous taxi services in the country, alongside competitors Pony.ai and WeRide. Its fleets are in operation in various cities, with the fleet in Wuhan being the largest, comprising over 1000 vehicles.

Baidu also wants to expand abroad, including to the Middle East and Europe. To this end, the company has been cooperating with the US ride-hailing provider Uber since the summer of last year with the US ride-hailing provider Uber.

(wpl)