By Jiahui Huang
A number of Baidu's Apollo Go robotaxis froze in the middle of traffic in a major Chinese city, forcing passengers to abandon the vehicles, and raising questions over the safety of self-driving cars.
The Wuhan police department said it received multiple reports on Tuesday evening that Apollo Go cars had stalled on the streets of the city, and were unable to move.
The police said preliminary findings indicated that the incidents were caused by a system failure. All passengers safely exited the vehicles and there were no injuries, the police added.
Baidu didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from The Wall Street Journal.
Apollo Go has been expanding its robotaxi fleet size both domestically and overseas. Wuhan is one of Apollo Go's major robotaxi hubs.
Apollo Go completed 3.4 million driverless rides in the fourth quarter last year, with total rides more than tripling from the prior-year period.
This year is critical as companies start to reap benefits with the scaling up of robotaxi fleets, HSBC Global Research analysts said in a note.
One major uncertainty weighing on the robotaxi industry is safety. This most recent incident is a rare occurrence for robotaxi companies in China after the widespread rollout of such vehicles in major cities across the country.
"While a great deal of progress has been made in China to approach the commercial inflection, efforts to increase consumer acceptance still have a long way to go," HSBC added.
Write to Jiahui Huang at jiahui.huang@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-01-26 0333ET
