Recently, a significant robotaxi outage in Wuhan, China, involving Baidu’s Apollo Go vehicles was attributed to a ‘system failure,’ as reported by local police. The incident, which affected over 100 vehicles, has raised safety concerns regarding the autonomous driving service.
According to a traffic police officer, passengers were able to exit the stalled vehicles safely, with no reported injuries. However, due to heavy traffic, some passengers hesitated to disembark, leading them to seek assistance from the police.
The cause of the system failure is currently under investigation, and Baidu has yet to provide a statement on the incident. This outage has reignited discussions on social media platforms in China about the reliability of robotaxi services.
Similar safety incidents involving autonomous vehicles have occurred in China in the past, including a robotaxi falling into a construction pit and a vehicle catching fire. These events underscore the importance of ensuring the robustness and safety of autonomous driving technologies.
Source: Tech-Economic Times