Robotaxi outage in Wuhan leaves passengers stranded

Beijing: Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. Initial probe indicates over 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said. No injuries were reported.

One passenger told Chinese media their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed an SOS button and was told staff were on their way. The car door could be opened, so the passenger got out on their own.

It is the first time a mass shutdown of robotaxis has been reported in China. In Dec, many Waymo’s self-driving cars came to a stop in the US due to a power outage.