Krux
April 4, 2026
At Least 100 Baidu Robotaxis Froze Mid-Traffic in Wuhan
Published: April 4, 2026 at 12:39 AM
Updated: April 4, 2026 at 12:39 AM
100-word summary
Baidu's Apollo Go fleet suffered a mass outage on March 31, stranding passengers for up to two hours as robotaxis halted on ring roads and mid-street. Local police blamed a "system malfunction." Baidu hasn't explained what broke. The incident exposes a risk unique to self-driving fleets: when one car's software crashes, that's a tow truck problem. When the backend fails, 100 vehicles stop at once. No injuries were reported, but the timing stings. Baidu just announced plans to run Apollo Go robotaxis in London through partnerships with Uber and Lyft. Regulators watching the Wuhan gridlock now have fresh reason to ask what happens when the cloud hiccups at rush hour.
What happened
Baidu's Apollo Go fleet suffered a mass outage on March 31, stranding passengers for up to two hours as robotaxis halted on ring roads and mid-street. Local police blamed a "system malfunction." Baidu hasn't explained what broke.
Why it matters
The incident exposes a risk unique to self-driving fleets: when one car's software crashes, that's a tow truck problem. When the backend fails, 100 vehicles stop at once. No injuries were reported, but the timing stings. Baidu just announced plans to run Apollo Go robotaxis in London through partnerships with Uber and Lyft. Regulators watching the Wuhan gridlock now have fresh reason to ask what happens when the cloud hiccups at rush hour.