‘System failure’ paralyzes Baidu robotaxis in China

In Brief

Robotaxis operated by Baidu’s Apollo Go stalled passim Wuhan, China, successful immoderate cases trapping passengers for up to 2 hours, according to aggregate media reports arsenic good arsenic galore video and societal media posts.

Baidu has not shared what caused the wide outage. However, section constabulary said it was a “system failure” that affected astatine slightest 100 robotaxis, Reuters reported. The chartless method mistake caused robotaxis to abruptly frost — and sometimes successful unsafe spots specified arsenic the accelerated lane of roadways, according to Wired. Police are inactive investigating the matter.

Baidu did not respond to TechCrunch’s emailed petition for comment.

Baidu is 1 of the largest robotaxi operators successful China and has expanded to the Middle East. Last year, the institution said it planned to deploy a fleet of much than 1,000 autonomous vehicles in Dubai over the adjacent fewer years.

The caller Baidu outage is the latest incidental to rise questions astir the information of robotaxis and their interaction connected section communities. And it’s not conscionable isolated to China. A widespread powerfulness outage successful California past December wiped retired postulation lights, causing Waymo vehicles to go stuck.

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