A Baidu Inc. Apollo Go autonomous driving electrical automobile displayed on the Worldwide Automotive and Provide Chain Expo in Hong Kong, June 12, 2025.
Chan Lengthy Hei | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxis reportedly stopped mid-traffic, trapping passengers and leading to freeway collisions on the streets of the Chinese language metropolis of Wuhan on Tuesday, in line with movies shared on social media.
The incident was confirmed by a assertion revealed on the official Weibo account of the Wuhan native site visitors police division, which acknowledged studies of a number of Apollo Go automobiles that stalled in the course of a street.
“Upon investigation, preliminary findings recommend system malfunctions as the reason for the incident,” learn the police division’s assertion in Chinese language, translated by CNBC.
The assertion added that authorities had labored with Apollo Go workers to deal with the preliminary scenario, with the incident nonetheless present process additional investigation. Passengers had safely exited the affected automobiles, it added.
Chinese language search big Baidu, which owns and operates Apollo Go, didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
Wuhan metropolis is residence to Apollo Go’s largest robotaxi deployment in China, with greater than 1,000 automobiles working with out human drivers.
Baidu has invested in and ramped up its driverless ride-hailing unit very like its U.S. counterpart Alphabet has invested in and ramped up robotaxi service Waymo within the western a part of the U.S.. Each have grown into main robotaxi suppliers in an rising business that is just lately tipped into the mainstream.
Apollo Go additionally faces formidable competitors from different Chinese language autonomous automobile makers in Asia, together with WeRide and Pony.AI. Elon Musk’s automaker Tesla can also be growing driverless automobiles however just isn’t but working a business robotaxi service exterior of a restricted pilot in Austin, Texas.
Apollo Go already operates a business, driverless ride-hailing service in a number of main Chinese language cities, together with all the metropolis of Wuhan and the suburbs of Beijing. In its fourth-quarter earnings replace for 2025, Baidu mentioned Apollo Go driverless automobiles are actually deployed or testing in 26 worldwide cities.
Within the fourth quarter of 2025, Baidu mentioned Apollo Go “delivered 3.4 million absolutely driverless operational rides,” with weekly rides surpassing 300,000 throughout peak weeks of the quarter. Within the West, Baidu’s robotaxi model has shaped partnerships with ride-hailing giants Uber and Lyft to pilot autonomous automobiles in London.
Within the Center East, Apollo Go launched absolutely autonomous ride-hailing providers in Abu Dhabi with AutoGo. It additionally obtained the primary absolutely driverless testing allow in Dubai, and in current days started providing its robotaxis through the Uber app there, CNEVpost reported this week.
Uber didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the Apollo Go incidents reported in Wuhan and whether or not its Dubai fleet could also be impacted.
In December, an influence outage in San Francisco prompted autonomous automobile operator Waymo’s robotaxi fleet to stall throughout the town.
Baidu boasts that its Apollo Go autonomous automobiles have pushed “300 million autonomous kilometers,” already, together with over 190 million kilometers with no human security supervisor on board within the automobiles. Chinese language robotaxi operators have sometimes claimed the rides have but to lead to main human accidents, however have offered much less data on crashes.
Whereas Chinese language regulators haven’t responded to the incident, a gaggle of specialists from the China Insurance coverage Business Affiliation are reportedly finalizing plans to specify insurance coverage phrases and merchandise for driverless automobiles because the nation strikes to broaden using the expertise, in line with a Monday report by Yicai World.
