‘System failure’ sparked robotaxi outage in central China, police say | CNN

A “system failure” caused a robotaxi outage involving multiple vehicles operated by Baidu’s Apollo Go in central Chinese city of Wuhan, local police said on Wednesday, re-igniting safety concerns over the fast-growing service. Police received reports late on Tuesday that numerous Apollo Go cars had stopped in the middle of roads and were unable to move, according to an official statement. Passengers were able to exit the vehicles safely and there were no injuries, police said. The cause of the incident is still under investigation. At least 100 Apollo Go vehicles were affected, a traffic police officer said in a video published by Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper. The officer added that while the car doors could be opened, some passengers were hesitant to get out because of heavy traffic and called police for assistance. A video verified by Reuters and posted on TikTok’s Chinese version, Douyin, showed vehicles stalled on busy roads and obstructing traffic. Local media reported that some passengers were trapped inside the vehicles for nearly two hours. Baidu did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The accident sparked renewed discussions on Chinese social