Baidu Robotaxi System Failure Triggers Massive Traffic Chaos in Wuhan - News Directory 3

The outage left several passengers stranded for extended periods.

Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service, Apollo Go, experienced a widespread system failure on April 1, 2026, causing multiple robotaxis to stall in the middle of roads in Wuhan, China. The incident resulted in significant traffic disruptions, stranded passengers and at least one reported highway collision.

Local authorities in Wuhan confirmed the event after receiving a surge of reports from riders on Tuesday night. The Wuhan local traffic police department stated that preliminary investigations suggest a system malfunction was the cause of the vehicles freezing in traffic.

The outage left several passengers stranded for extended periods. One rider reported on the social media platform RedNote that their vehicle broke down on an elevated highway at 9:00 p.m. Local time on April 1, 2026. The user stated they were unable to reach customer service initially and remained stuck on the overpass until 10:30 p.m., when the order was cancelled.

Another passenger told Wired that their cab stopped four times during a single trip before eventually parking in front of an intersection. The vehicle's internal screens instructed riders to remain onboard for a company representative. That passenger reported it took 30 minutes to reach a customer service agent before the group decided to exit the vehicle and seek alternative transportation.

The failure extended beyond passenger inconvenience to road safety. Dash cam footage shared on social media, including the platform X, appeared to show a human-driven vehicle crashing into the rear of a stranded Baidu car that had come to a stop on a busy, multi-lane highway.

Wuhan serves as the site of one of the largest experiments in self-driving technology and is home to Apollo Go's largest robotaxi deployment in China. Reports on the scale of the fleet vary, with some sources stating Baidu operates more than 500 driverless cars in the city, while others indicate the fleet exceeds 1,000 vehicles operating without human drivers.

The incident occurred as Baidu continues to scale its autonomous driving unit to compete with other regional providers such as WeRide and Pony. This expansion mirrors the strategies of U.S.-based companies like Alphabet, which has scaled its Waymo service in the western United States.

The Wuhan local traffic police department acknowledged the reports via its official Weibo account on Wednesday, April 2, 2026. The police confirmed that they worked with Apollo Go staff to manage the initial situation and stated that passengers had safely exited the affected vehicles.

Despite the police confirmation and widespread social media reporting, Baidu did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CNBC regarding the system failure or the resulting collisions.

The police department noted that the incident is still undergoing further investigation to determine the exact nature of the system malfunction that caused the fleet to stall.