China suspends issuing new autonomous vehicle licences after Baidu robotaxi outage: Sources

BEIJING – China has suspended issuing new licences for autonomous vehicles, according to people familiar with the matter, after dozens of Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxis suddenly stopped in Wuhan in March, stranding passengers and disrupting traffic. 

The incident alarmed the authorities, and three agencies including China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology convened a meeting earlier in April with officials from cities that have robotaxis or autonomous-driving pilots, the people said.

Regulators called for local governments to conduct a full self-review and enhance safety monitoring to prevent similar incidents, said the people, who declined to be identified because they are not authorised to speak publicly.

The suspension of new licences prevents self-driving companies from adding new robotaxis to their fleets, starting a new test project or expanding to a new city, the people said. It is not clear how long the suspension will last, the people said.

The halt comes as a setback to a fast-growing industry that is estimated to be worth 83.1 billion yuan (S$15.52 billion) by 2030, according to analysis by Soochow Securities.

Chinese companies are on the forefront of bringing the technology to global markets, locked in competition with rivals such as Alphabet’s Waymo in the US. 

This marks at least the second time that regulators have paused new permits due to a Baidu-related incident. 

In the Wuhan incident, more than 100 Apollo Go robotaxis stalled on city streets on March 31, according to Chinese media reports.

The local police said the outage was likely caused by a systems fault, although Baidu has yet to comment on the cause. Apollo Go is the largest robotaxi provider in China, with hundreds of vehicles in more than a dozen cities. 

Baidu’s Wuhan robotaxi operations have also been suspended while the local authorities investigate the incident, the people said. 

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Transportation of China did not reply to faxed requests for comment.

A representative for Baidu did not immediately respond to e-mailed questions.

Rival robotaxi provider Pony AI said its services in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are currently operating normally. And preparation for Changsha and Hangzhou is progressing as planned, a spokesperson said.

WeRide said it supported the authorities’ efforts to ensure the highest safety standards across the industry, and that their services in China are still operating as normal. 

Beijing is trying to balance safety concerns and negative public sentiment over AI-related job losses with the desire to groom homegrown technology in the autonomous-driving race against the US.

The licences specifically pertain to level four autonomous driving vehicles, which refers to a high degree of driving automation where a human does not need to intervene.

Two years ago, residents in Wuhan protested over the deployment of Apollo Go robotaxis in the city, fearing taxi drivers could lose their jobs. To calm public sentiment, regulators froze approvals in late 2024 for several months and it was not until early 2025 that permitting resumed.

The shares of China’s two US-listed robotaxi companies have fallen in 2026, with WeRide down almost 10 per cent and Pony AI plunging around 30 per cent.

The companies are yet to make a profit and need to invest heavily into developing new products and supporting their global expansion plans. BLOOMBERG