Traffic gridlock caused by driverless taxis: System failure at Apollo Go raises questions about reliability

According to local police, much currently points to a 'system malfunction'. On Tuesday, a large number of autonomous vehicles abruptly stopped in the midst of traffic. Some vehicles came to a halt on multi-lane roads exactly where they disrupted the flow of traffic the most: on the overtaking lanes. Within a short time, traffic backed up across large parts of the city.

Up to two hours trapped in the vehicle

For the passengers, it meant one thing above all: waiting. Some were stuck in the vehicles for up to two hours, unable to intervene. A driver who could have reacted was not on board. The much-praised efficiency of autonomous mobility turned into the opposite in that moment.

The service is operated by the technology conglomerate Baidu with its robotaxi offering Apollo Go. According to initial findings, the outage crippled large parts of the fleet. The police confirmed the incident and spoke of a "System Failure". No one was injured, but the stoppage did not come without consequences. Videos circulating on social networks show minor rear-end collisions — caused by vehicles whose drivers had not anticipated abruptly braking robotaxis.