A passenger, identified as Luka Lu, described moments of tension when South China Morning Post: “It was very dangerous. We were at rush hour in the late afternoon, with heavy traffic that included several heavy vehicles.” Luka added that he waited “more than an hour” for assistance from the company, without success: “No one showed up. I had to end up calling the traffic police.”.
Authorities indicated that there were no injuries, but confirmed that they had sent police teams and technicians to evacuate passengers and clear the roads. The incident comes at a critical stage for Baidu, which has been expanding its robot service internationally, competing with rivals such as Pony.ai and WeRide.
The case also reignited public debate on Chinese social media about the reliability of autonomous vehicles, in a sector that has seen rapid growth but also occasional incidents. For now, the exact origin of the failure remains unclear, exposing the challenges that still persist in the global race for autonomous mobility.
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