A mass robotaxi outage in the Chinese city of Wuhan caused at least a hundred self-driving cars to stop mid-traffic, sparking renewed debate around the safety of driverless vehicles. Local police reported that initial findings pointed to a 'system malfunction' that prompted multiple vehicles to halt in the middle of the road on Tuesday. Social media videos captured the outage, showing one instance that appeared to result in a highway collision, though police confirmed there were no injuries, with passengers exiting their vehicles safely. Baidu, the company operating the robotaxi service known as Apollo Go, did not immediately respond to requests for comments. According to the police statement on Weibo, further investigations are underway. Baidu's Apollo Go service is operational in multiple cities globally, primarily in China. Recently, in December 2025, Baidu partnered with ride-sharing apps Uber and Lyft to test its Apollo Go vehicles on roads in the UK, pending regulatory approval. Experts emphasize that while self-driving technology may statistically be safer than human drivers, incidents like this highlight potential new types of risks linked to autonomous systems. This outage is not an isolated incident; previous technical failures were reported, including a significant power outage in San Francisco that left Waymo taxis stranded, as well as instances when Apollo Go taxis faced obstacles like falling into construction sites.