Apollo Go Robotaxi Malfunction Leads to Road Accidents

Apollo Go robotaxis halted in Wuhan, causing accidents and trapping passengers.

Dozens of Apollo Go robotaxis from Baidu came to a halt in the middle of traffic on the roads of Wuhan, China. The situation resulted in collisions, trapping passengers inside the vehicles.

NEW: Dozens of robotaxis by Baidu stopped on the road in Wuhan, causing crashes on highways and trapping passengers in the cars—some for more than an hour. One passenger told me it took her 30 minutes to even connect to a customer representative.

Here’s a video of a crash. pic.twitter.com/fTitNMv8kj

— Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 (@ZeyiYang) April 1, 2026

One passenger reported that it took her half an hour to reach customer support. Eventually, people were able to safely exit the vehicles.

The incident was confirmed by local traffic police. The department stated that some vehicles stopped right on the roadway.

“Preliminary data indicates that the situation occurred due to a system failure,” the authorities stated.

Authorities and Apollo Go staff continue to investigate.

Wuhan is the largest site for the company’s robotaxis, with over 1,000 autonomous vehicles operating in the city.

Baidu is actively investing in and developing its autonomous transport division, akin to Alphabet, which owns Waymo. Both corporations have become leaders in the rapidly growing industry.

Apollo Go faces strong competition from other Chinese developers of autonomous vehicles such as WeRide and Pony.ai. In the United States, a major player in this market is Elon Musk’s Tesla.

Apollo Go already offers commercial rides in several major cities, including throughout Wuhan and the suburbs of Beijing. In total, the vehicles operate or are being tested in 26 cities worldwide.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, the service completed 3.4 million orders. In Western markets, Apollo Go collaborates with Uber and Lyft.

Back in December, Waymo vehicles were stranded on city streets due to a power outage.