'System malfunction' causes more than 100 driverless taxis to stop mid-traffic in China

A system failure caused more than 100 driverless cars to suddenly stop mid-traffic in China.

Some passengers were left stranded in their vehicles after a "system malfunction" caused the driverless robotaxis to come to a halt in Wuhan on Tuesday.

No injuries were reported.

One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner.

An instruction on a screen then read: "Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in five minutes."

While some passengers were able to leave their cars, others were afraid to get out because they had stopped in a middle lane with traffic going by on either side, according to local reports.

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The taxis are operated by Baidu, a major Chinese internet and AI company firm that is set to bring its driverless taxis to the UK this year.

Baidu operates hundreds of robotaxis in Wuhan, which hosted an early pilot project for the company.

Uber and Lyft ‌are both planning to launch driverless taxi trials with the company.

It is the first time a mass shutdown of taxis has been reported in China.

In December, many self-driving cars in San Francisco operated by rival firm Waymo came to a sudden stop because of a power outage.

Baidu did not reply to a request from the Associated Press news agency for comment.

(c) Sky News 2026: 'System malfunction' causes more than 100 driverless taxis to stop mid-traffic in China