Baidu Inc.’s Apollo Go self-driving electric vehicle on display at the International Automotive and Supply Chain Exhibition in Hong Kong, June 12, 2025.
Zhang Long Hei | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxi reportedly stopped in a traffic jam on the streets of China’s Wuhan city on Tuesday, trapping passengers and causing a crash on the highway, according to a video shared on social media.
The incident was confirmed by a statement released on the Wuhan Regional Traffic Police Station’s official Weibo account, confirming reports that multiple Apollo Go vehicles stalled in the middle of the road.
“As a result of the investigation, preliminary findings suggest a system malfunction as the cause of the incident,” a police statement in Chinese translated by CNBC said.
The statement added that authorities are working with Apollo Go staff to address the initial situation and the incident is still under further investigation. It added that passengers were safely ejected from the affected vehicle.
China’s search giant BaiduThe company that owns and operates ApolloGo did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The city of Wuhan has China’s largest fleet of robotaxis from Apollo Go, with more than 1,000 vehicles operating without human drivers.
Baidu, like its U.S. peers, is investing in driverless ride-hailing services to strengthen its business. alphabet invested in and expanded the robotaxi service Waymo in the western United States. Both companies have grown into leading robotaxi providers in an emerging industry that has recently become mainstream.
ApolloGo also faces stiff competition from other Chinese self-driving car makers in Asia. we ride and pony.AI. Elon Musk’s car manufacturer tesla The company is also developing driverless cars, but has not yet operated a commercial robo-taxi service outside of a limited pilot in Austin, Texas.
Apollo Go already operates commercial driverless ride-hailing services in several major cities in China, including throughout Wuhan and outside Beijing. Baidu said in its Q4 2025 earnings update that Apollo Go driverless cars are currently being deployed or tested in 26 international cities.
Baidu announced that in the fourth quarter of 2025, Apollo Go “delivered 3.4 million fully unmanned trips” and exceeded 300,000 weekly rides during the quarter’s peak week. In the West, Baidu’s robotaxi brand is partnering with ride-hailing giants Uber and Lyft to test self-driving cars in London.
In the Middle East, Apollo Go launched a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Abu Dhabi with AutoGo. The company also received the first fully driverless test permit in Dubai and in recent days began offering robotaxis in Dubai via the Uber app, CNEVpost reported this week.
Uber The company did not respond to requests for comment on the Apollo incident reported in Wuhan or the potential impact on its Dubai fleet.
In December, a power outage in San Francisco caused autonomous vehicle operator Waymo’s fleet of robotaxis to stall across the city.
Baidu boasts that its Apollo Go self-driving car has already traveled “300 million self-driving kilometers,” of which more than 190 million kilometers were without a human safety observer on board. Chinese robotaxi operators typically maintain that the rides have not yet caused any major injuries, but have provided little information about the crashes.
Chinese regulators have not reacted to the incident, but an expert group from the China Insurance Industry Association is finalizing plans for the country to define insurance terms and products for self-driving cars in a bid to expand the use of self-driving technology, Yi Cai International newspaper reported on Monday.
