Baidu’s autonomous ride-hailing service, Apollo Go, experienced a widespread system failure on the evening of March 31, 2026, leaving numerous passengers stranded, some for nearly two hours on elevated highways and main thoroughfares in Wuhan. Customer service attributed the “abnormal driving system” to network issues.
This is yet another recent accident involving Baidu’s robotaxi. Last December, a Baidu robotaxi operated by Hello was involved in an accident in the Chinese city of Zhuzhou, which led the government to suspend robotaxi operations in that city.
Starting around 9:00 PM local time, social media platforms were flooded with reports from users in Hubei province detailing the “collective paralysis” of Apollo Go vehicles across Wuhan. Passengers described terrifying situations, with their driverless cars suddenly stopping in the middle of busy roads.
Mr Lu, a Wuhan resident, recounted his harrowing experience to DuTe News. He was trapped on the Third Ring Road, an elevated highway, for close to two hours. “The car stopped directly in the middle of the road on the Third Ring Road, with large trucks speeding past on both sides,” Lu said at 10:40 PM, still inside the vehicle. He reported that the in-car SOS button was “completely useless” and calls made via the backseat screen were automatically disconnected. After finally reaching the official 400 customer service hotline, he was informed that a specialist would be dispatched. However, after waiting for nearly an hour, no one arrived. Desperate, Mr Lu called the police, who, along with Apollo Go staff, eventually reached him around 11:00 PM, allowing him to safely exit the elevated highway.
Another passenger, Ms Zhou (pseudonym), shared a similar ordeal. She boarded an Apollo Go vehicle around 8:30 PM. “The car kept displaying a warning about a vehicle problem, advising not to open the door,” she said. After about ten minutes of driving, the car abruptly stopped on an elevated highway. Like Mr Lu, she struggled to contact emergency services within the car and via the app. After a long wait, she was told a specialist was en route, but no one appeared for 1.5 hours. Fortunately, passing traffic police noticed her predicament and helped her off the highway. Despite the distress, Ms Zhou was still charged the full fare.
The widespread nature of the incident was evident from numerous online posts detailing similar experiences, including difficulties reaching customer service and prolonged waits for assistance. When contacted by a reporter from DuTe News, an Apollo Go customer service representative stated they could only investigate issues if provided with a specific vehicle number and claimed to be unaware of the broader Wuhan incident. As of the time of publication, Apollo Go had not released any official statement regarding the widespread malfunction.
As of October 2025, Apollo Go‘s global autonomous driving testing and operation mileage exceeded 240 million km, with fully driverless mileage surpassing 140 million km. The service operates in 22 cities worldwide and has completed over 17 million rides.
Editor’s comment
The last incident happened in Zhuzhou, a relatively small city, but this massive robotaxi breakdown took place in Wuhan, China’s eighth-largest city, which has a population of nearly 14 million. Word is that no one was hurt this time, but having a fleet glitch out like that can still paralyse traffic in a major metropolis.
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