Robotaxis operated by Baidu’s Apollo Go stalled all through Wuhan, China, in some circumstances trapping passengers for as much as two hours, in response to a number of media reviews in addition to quite a few video and social media posts.
Baidu has not shared what triggered the widespread outage. Nonetheless, native police mentioned it was a “system failure” that affected a minimum of 100 robotaxis, Reuters reported. The unknown technical error triggered robotaxis to out of the blue freeze — and generally in harmful spots such because the quick lane of roadways, according to Wired. Police are nonetheless investigating the matter.
Baidu didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s emailed request for remark.
Baidu is without doubt one of the largest robotaxi operators in China and has expanded to the Center East. Final 12 months, the corporate mentioned it deliberate to deploy a fleet of greater than 1,000 autonomous automobiles in Dubai over the following few years.
The latest Baidu outage is the most recent incident to lift questions in regards to the security of robotaxis and their impression on native communities. And it’s not simply remoted to China. A widespread energy outage in California final December worn out site visitors lights, inflicting Waymo automobiles to change into caught.
