An unspecified technological issue led to several autonomous taxis, operated by the Chinese tech behemoth Baidu, becoming immobilized on Tuesday amidst ongoing traffic, stranding some occupants within the conveyances for over an hour.
Within Wuhan, a bustling metropolis in central China where Baidu has launched hundreds of its Apollo Go self-driving cabs, individuals on Chinese social platforms reported observing the vehicles abruptly cease functioning and become inoperable. Digital images and footage disseminated virtually depicted the Baidu automobiles halted on busy thoroughfares, frequently occupying the express lane.
A university pupil in Wuhan informed WIRED that on Tuesday, she found herself trapped in a Baidu autonomous taxi with two companions for approximately 90 minutes. (To safeguard her anonymity, she requested identification solely by her surname, He.) The student recounted the vehicle malfunctioning and pausing on four or five occasions over the course of the journey before it ultimately pulled over before an intersection in eastern Wuhan. Fortuitously, the thoroughfare was not congested, and the party faced no immediate peril. The in-car screen prompt, according to an image He provided to WIRED, instructed the occupants to stay buckled in and await a corporate representative’s arrival “within five minutes.”
He mentioned spending roughly half an hour attempting to contact a Baidu client support agent via telephone. “They repeatedly stated the issue would be escalated to their supervisor. However, they offered no explanation for the disruption nor did they inform us of the expected waiting period for personnel to arrive,” He recounted. Nevertheless, no one materialized, and following an additional sixty minutes of anticipation, the trio of riders chose to simply exit and proceed home independently (as the doors were unlatched).
Across Chinese social platforms, additional passengers likewise voiced grievances regarding their inability to access Baidu’s customer assistance. “I exhausted every conceivable method to summon aid via the application’s presented choices, yet the telephone connection failed, and upon pressing the SOS button, I was informed of its unavailability. What, then, is the purpose of this SOS feature?” penned one individual in a RedNote entry accompanied by footage demonstrating the button’s non-functionality. She recounted needing to exert force to open the door and exit the vehicle as traffic ground to a complete standstill behind her autonomous taxi. “Apollo Go, you genuinely owe me an act of contrition,” she concluded.
Baidu did not promptly address a solicitation for commentary. Authorities in Wuhan released an announcement near midnight, local China time, stating the predicament was “probably due to a system error,” but the occurrence remains subject to inquiry. No individuals sustained harm, and all occupants have departed the conveyances, the police further indicated. The precise number of Baidu’s autonomous taxis potentially affected remains uncertain.
A single dashboard camera recording uploaded to RedNote reveals a vehicle traversing past sixteen Apollo Go automobiles immobilized on the thoroughfare within a ninety-minute timeframe. Multiple instances captured in the footage illustrate the driver barely preventing collisions with the autonomous taxis by applying brakes or swerving at the eleventh hour.
Evidently, others did not experience such good fortune. Within a separate RedNote entry, an individual asserted having collided with one of the faulty Baidu vehicles. The individual stated in the accompanying text that he was operating his vehicle at speeds exceeding 40 mph on an expressway when the automobile ahead abruptly shifted lanes to bypass the halted autonomous taxi. His reaction time proved insufficient, leading to him crashing into the driverless vehicle. Images depicting the man’s orange SUV being hauled away reveal the vehicle’s front-right mudguard was entirely detached, and additional components seemed to have incurred significant harm.
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