Over 100 Baidu robotaxis halt mid-traffic in Wuhan after system malfunction strands passengers

Passengers stranded in moving traffic after robotaxi outage in China's Wuhan

BEIJING (AP) -- Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a "system malfunction," police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: "Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes." After no one showed up, the passenger pushed an SOS button and was told that staff were on their way. The car door could be opened, so the passenger got out on their own. It is the first time a mass shutdown of robotaxis has been reported in China. In December, many of Waymo's self-driving cars came to a stop in San Francisco because of a power outage. The taxis in Wuhan are operated by Baidu, a major Chinese internet and AI company that is expanding its Apollo Go robotaxi business to overseas locations in Europe and the Mideast. Baidu did not have any immediate comment. Police said reports that taxis were coming to a halt started coming in around 9 p.m., while media reports said multiple people were rescued. While some passengers were able to exit their taxis on their own, others were afraid to get out because their vehicle had stopped in the middle lane of a ring road with other vehicles passing on both sides, the reports said. Ring roads are elevated roads without traffic lights designed to move traffic quickly in urban areas. Baidu operates hundreds of robotaxis in Wuhan, which hosted an early pilot project for the company. The company, which operates more than 1,000 robotaxis, mostly in China, started a service in Abu Dhabi and Dubai this year and is working with partners to launch service in Britain and Switzerland.

Robotaxi outage in China's Wuhan leaves passengers stranded in moving traffic

More than 100 of the Baidu driverless vehicles stopped running because of a system malfunction Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a "system malfunction", police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: "Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes." After no one showed up, the passenger pushed an SOS button and was told that staff were on their way. The car door could be opened, so the passenger got out on their own. It is the first time a mass shutdown of robotaxis has been reported in China. In December, many of Waymo's self-driving cars came to a stop in San Francisco because of a power outage. The taxis in Wuhan are operated by Baidu, a major Chinese internet and AI company that is expanding its Apollo Go robotaxi business to overseas locations in Europe and the Mideast. The company did not have any immediate comment. Police said reports that taxis were coming to a halt started coming in around 9 pm, while media reports said multiple people were rescued. While some passengers were able to exit their taxis on their own, others were afraid to get out because their vehicle had stopped in the middle lane of a ring road with other vehicles passing on both sides, the reports said. Ring roads are elevated roads without traffic lights designed to move traffic quickly in urban areas. Baidu operates hundreds of robotaxis in Wuhan, which hosted an early pilot project for the company. The company, which operates more than 1,000 robotaxis, mostly in China, started a service in Abu Dhabi and Dubai this year and is working with partners to launch service in Britain and Switzerland.

Passengers stranded in moving traffic after robotaxi outage in China's Wuhan

BEIJING -- Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a "system malfunction," police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: "Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes." After no one showed up, the passenger pushed an SOS button and was told that staff were on their way. The car door could be opened, so the passenger got out on their own. It is the first time a mass shutdown of robotaxis has been reported in China. In December, many of Waymo's self-driving cars came to a stop in San Francisco because of a power outage. The taxis in Wuhan are operated by Baidu, a major Chinese internet and AI company that is expanding its Apollo Go robotaxi business to overseas locations in Europe and the Mideast. Baidu did not have any immediate comment. Police said reports that taxis were coming to a halt started coming in around 9 p.m., while media reports said multiple people were rescued. While some passengers were able to exit their taxis on their own, others were afraid to get out because their vehicle had stopped in the middle lane of a ring road with other vehicles passing on both sides, the reports said. Ring roads are elevated roads without traffic lights designed to move traffic quickly in urban areas. Baidu operates hundreds of robotaxis in Wuhan, which hosted an early pilot project for the company. The company, which operates more than 1,000 robotaxis, mostly in China, started a service in Abu Dhabi and Dubai this year and is working with partners to launch service in Britain and Switzerland.

'System malfunction' causes more than 100 driverless taxis to stop mid-traffic in China

Cars stopped in the middle of busy roads, leaving passengers stranded in Wuhan. A system failure caused more than 100 driverless cars to suddenly stop mid-traffic in China. Some passengers were left stranded in their vehicles after a "system malfunction" caused the driverless robotaxis to come to a halt in Wuhan on Tuesday. An instruction on a screen then read: "Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in five minutes." While some passengers were able to leave their cars, others were afraid to get out because they had stopped in a middle lane with traffic going by on either side, according to local reports. Read more from Sky News: Scott Mills releases statement after BBC sacking Trump attends Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship The taxis are operated by Baidu, a major Chinese internet and AI company firm that is set to bring its driverless taxis to the UK this year. Baidu operates hundreds of robotaxis in Wuhan, which hosted an early pilot project for the company. Uber and Lyft are both planning to launch driverless taxi trials with the company. It is the first time a mass shutdown of taxis has been reported in China. In December, many self-driving cars in San Francisco operated by rival firm Waymo came to a sudden stop because of a power outage. Baidu did not reply to a request from the Associated Press news agency for comment.

Passengers stranded in moving traffic after robotaxi outage in China's Wuhan

BEIJING (AP) -- Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a "system malfunction," police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: "Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes." After no one showed up, the passenger pushed an SOS button and was told that staff were on their way. The car door could be opened, so the passenger got out on their own. It is the first time a mass shutdown of robotaxis has been reported in China. In December, many of Waymo's self-driving cars came to a stop in San Francisco because of a power outage. The taxis in Wuhan are operated by Baidu, a major Chinese internet and AI company that is expanding its Apollo Go robotaxi business to overseas locations in Europe and the Mideast. Baidu did not have any immediate comment. Police said reports that taxis were coming to a halt started coming in around 9 p.m., while media reports said multiple people were rescued. While some passengers were able to exit their taxis on their own, others were afraid to get out because their vehicle had stopped in the middle lane of a ring road with other vehicles passing on both sides, the reports said. Ring roads are elevated roads without traffic lights designed to move traffic quickly in urban areas. Baidu operates hundreds of robotaxis in Wuhan, which hosted an early pilot project for the company. The company, which operates more than 1,000 robotaxis, mostly in China, started a service in Abu Dhabi and Dubai this year and is working with partners to launch service in Britain and Switzerland.

Passengers Stranded in Moving Traffic After Robotaxi Outage in China's Wuhan

BEIJING (AP) -- Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a "system malfunction," police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: "Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes." After no one showed up, the passenger pushed an SOS button and was told that staff were on their way. The car door could be opened, so the passenger got out on their own. It is the first time a mass shutdown of robotaxis has been reported in China. In December, many of Waymo's self-driving cars came to a stop in San Francisco because of a power outage. The taxis in Wuhan are operated by Baidu, a major Chinese internet and AI company that is expanding its Apollo Go robotaxi business to overseas locations in Europe and the Mideast. Baidu did not have any immediate comment. Police said reports that taxis were coming to a halt started coming in around 9 p.m., while media reports said multiple people were rescued. While some passengers were able to exit their taxis on their own, others were afraid to get out because their vehicle had stopped in the middle lane of a ring road with other vehicles passing on both sides, the reports said. Ring roads are elevated roads without traffic lights designed to move traffic quickly in urban areas. Baidu operates hundreds of robotaxis in Wuhan, which hosted an early pilot project for the company. The company, which operates more than 1,000 robotaxis, mostly in China, started a service in Abu Dhabi and Dubai this year and is working with partners to launch service in Britain and Switzerland.