Robotaxi Outage in China Leaves Passengers Stranded on Highways

An unknown technical drawback triggered a variety of robotaxis owned by the Chinese language tech big Baidu to freeze on Tuesday in the course of visitors, trapping some passengers within the automobiles for greater than an hour.

In Wuhan, a metropolis in central China the place Baidu has deployed tons of of its Apollo Go self-driving taxis, individuals on Chinese language social media reported witnessing the vehicles out of the blue malfunction and cease working. Photos and videos shared on-line present the Baidu vehicles halted on busy highways, usually within the quick lane.

A school scholar in Wuhan tells WIRED that she was caught in a Baidu robotaxi with two pals for about 90 minutes on Tuesday. (She requested to be solely recognized together with her final identify, He, to guard her privateness.) The coed says the automotive malfunctioned and stopped 4 or 5 occasions through the journey earlier than IT ultimately parked in entrance of an intersection in jap Wuhan. Fortunately, IT was not a busy highway, and the group was not in speedy hazard. The display screen show within the automotive requested the passengers to stay within the automotive with seatbelts on and wait for a corporation consultant to come back “in 5 minutes,” in line with a photograph He shared with WIRED.

He says IT took about half-hour to succeed in a Baidu buyer consultant on the cellphone. “They stored saying IT could be reported to their superior. However they didn’t clarify what triggered [the outage] or tell us how lengthy we would have liked to attend for the employees to come back,” He says. However nobody ever got here, and after one other hour of ready, the three passengers determined to simply get out and go residence by themselves (the doorways weren’t locked).

On Chinese language social media, different passengers additionally complained about being unable to succeed in Baidu’s buyer assist. “I attempted each means I may consider to name for assist utilizing the choices the app confirmed, however the cellphone line wouldn’t undergo, and once I pressed the SOS button IT instructed me IT was unavailable. So then what precisely is the SOS for?” wrote one individual in a publish on RedNote alongside a video exhibiting the button not working. She stated she needed to drive the door to open and get out of the automotive as visitors halted to a whole cease behind her robotaxi. “Apollo Go, you actually owe me an apology,” she wrote.

Baidu didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Native police in Wuhan issued an announcement round midnight in China that stated the scenario was “possible brought on by a system malfunction,” however the incident remains to be below investigation. Nobody was injured, and all passengers have exited the automobiles, the police added. IT’s unclear what number of of Baidu’s robotaxis might have been impacted.

One dashcam recording posted to RedNote reveals a automotive passing 16 Apollo Go automobiles parked on the highway within the span of 90 minutes. On a number of events, the video reveals the driving force narrowly avoiding hitting the robotaxis by braking or altering lanes on the final minute.

Others have been apparently not as lucky. In one other RedNote publish, a person claimed he crashed into one of many malfunctioning Baidu automobiles. The person wrote within the caption that he was driving over 40 mph on a freeway when the automotive in entrance of him out of the blue modified lanes to keep away from the stopped robotaxi. He couldn’t react quick sufficient and ended up working into the self-driving automotive. Images of the person’s orange SUV being towed away present that the automotive’s front-right fender was fully torn off, and different elements appeared to have sustained main harm.