Robotaxi passengers in China became stranded on busy roads after their driverless cars came to a sudden halt in heavy traffic.
A “system malfunction” caused more than 100 Apollo Go vehicles to stall in the city of Wuhan, according to local police.
While no injuries were reported, it did cause traffic chaos in some cases.
Videos on social media showed cars stopped in the middle of multi-lane roads with their hazard lights on, obstructing traffic.
The driverless taxis in Wuhan are operated by Baidu, a Chinese internet and AI company that is planning to expand its Apollo Go robotaxi business to Europe.
It also started a service in Abu Dhabi and Dubai this year.
Baidu, which operates more than 1,000 driverless taxis in China, did not respond to a request for comment.
Police said reports that taxis had come to a halt started about 9pm on Tuesday, local time.
The cause of the incident is still under investigation.
Apollo Go, Baidu’s robotaxi service, has more than 1000 cars operating in China. (REUTERS/Ethan Wang)
While some passengers were easily able to exit the taxis, others were stuck for hours and had to be rescued because their vehicles stopped in the middle of a busy, multi-lane roads.
It is the first time a mass shutdown of robotaxis has been reported in China.
But last year, many of Waymo’s self-driving cars in San Francisco came to a stop due to a power outage.
Reuters/AP
