Mass robotaxi malfunction halts traffic in Chinese city

Over 100 autonomous vehicles in Wuhan, China, abruptly halted during traffic flow due to a system failure, raising concerns about the reliability of self-driving cars. Authorities confirmed the disruption occurred on Tuesday, with local police attributing the incident to a “technical error” that caused multiple robotaxis to stop unexpectedly. Social media videos captured the event, including one showing a collision on a highway, though no injuries were reported and passengers exited the vehicles safely.

Baidu, the company behind the Apollo Go service, has not yet released a statement. The police’s Weibo post noted the cause of the outage is still under review. Baidu’s autonomous ride service operates in numerous global cities, primarily in China, but has expanded its ambitions to include UK roads. In December 2025, Uber and Lyft announced plans to test Apollo Go vehicles in the UK, targeting 2026 for pilot programs. However, regulatory approval remains a hurdle before these trials can begin.

Expert warns of unforeseen risks

Jack Stilgoe, a University College London professor specializing in science and technology policy, emphasized that while autonomous vehicles may reduce accidents compared to human drivers, the Wuhan incident revealed their capacity for “completely novel failures.” He told BBC News, “To make informed decisions about this technology, we must recognize entirely new categories of risk.”

This incident is part of a broader pattern. Earlier in December 2025, a San Francisco power outage caused Waymo taxis to malfunction, leading to severe traffic delays. In August 2025, an Apollo Go robotaxi in Chongqing reportedly crashed into a construction pit. Such events underscore the challenges in scaling driverless technology, even as companies push for wider adoption.

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