{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0473","record_version":1,"title":"Baidu Apollo Go robotaxi outage in Wuhan, China, leaves passengers stranded and traffic stalled","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":46.0,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":3.0,"completeness":2.56,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: WIRED · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":1,"reports_independent":1,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: WIRED · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"bae97196a48527f732eaa9641d19cd615cb6f2aef113ae7b099e5da78d6711f1"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"Baidu","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-03-31","incident_class":"operational_error","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"A fleet of Baidu robotaxis run under its Apollo Go service in Wuhan, China, was the subject of this incident. An unknown technical problem caused a number of the cars to freeze on Tuesday in the middle of traffic, trapping some passengers for more than an hour. Local police said the situation was likely caused by a system malfunction and that the incident is still under investigation. Passengers reported that the in-car phone line did not connect and the SOS button was unavailable. Photos and posts showed at least two other collisions on the same day involving the stopped vehicles. No one was injured, according to police. Baidu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":"unknown","root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"moderate","severity_because":"Third-party vehicles were damaged in collisions, but the number affected and the scope are not stated as bounded in the sources, so the tier is moderate rather than major.","harm_class":[],"affected_description":null,"protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.wired.com/story/robotaxi-outage-in-china-leaves-passengers-stuck-in-cars-on-highways/","publisher":"WIRED","date":"2026-03-31","type":"press","title":"Robotaxi Outage in China Leaves Passengers Stranded on Highways - WIRED","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report","independence":"independent"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.developer":"C","context.country":"C","event.root_cause":"C","event.incident_class":"D","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.developer":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Baidu is one of China’s leading self-driving firms."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"In Wuhan, a city in central China where Baidu has deployed hundreds of its Apollo Go self-driving taxis, people on Chinese social media reported witnessing the cars suddenly malfunction and stop operating."}],"event.root_cause":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"An unknown technical problem caused a number of robotaxis owned by the Chinese tech giant Baidu to freeze on Tuesday in the middle of traffic, trapping some passengers in the vehicles for more than an hour."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Local police in Wuhan issued a statement around midnight in China that said the situation was “likely caused by a system malfunction,” but the incident is still under investigation."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"There were at least two other collisions on the same day, according to photos and videos posted on Chinese social media."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"There were at least two other collisions on the same day, according to photos and videos posted on Chinese social media."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"An unknown technical problem caused a number of robotaxis owned by the Chinese tech giant Baidu to freeze on Tuesday in the middle of traffic, trapping some passengers in the vehicles for more than an hour."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Local police in Wuhan issued a statement around midnight in China that said the situation was “likely caused by a system malfunction,” but the incident is still under investigation."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"I tried every way I could think of to call for help using the options the app showed, but the phone line wouldn’t go through, and when I pressed the SOS button it told me it was unavailable."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"There were at least two other collisions on the same day, according to photos and videos posted on Chinese social media."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"No one was injured, and all passengers have exited the vehicles, the police added."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Baidu didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"The sources do not state the exact date of the outage, only that it happened on a Tuesday; the article date is 2026-03-31, but no occurrence date was inferred. The cause is stated only as unknown and as likely a system malfunction per police, so no trigger or root-cause detail was recorded. No detection method, responsible party, duration of the outage as a whole, or time to containment is stated. Treating the Apollo Go vehicles as full-auto is a judgement from the phrase fully autonomous vehicles. Agent involvement and failure class were left out because the sources do not describe the system's behaviour as an agent's misbehaviour. No controls were stated as held, failed, bypassed or missing, including the SOS button and customer support, so no links were recorded. No remediation by Baidu is reported. The severity tier moderate is a judgement, since third-party vehicles were damaged but the number affected is not stated. Baidu did not respond to comment requests, so its own account is absent. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Preliminary (1 report: WIRED · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":null,"org_size_band":null,"country":"CN","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"Several Baidu robotaxis froze in traffic on Tuesday.","quote":"An unknown technical problem caused a number of robotaxis owned by the Chinese tech giant Baidu to freeze on Tuesday in the middle of traffic, trapping some passengers in the vehicles for more than an hour.","source_index":0,"when":"Tuesday"},{"text":"About 30 minutes passed before a passenger reached a Baidu customer representative by phone.","quote":"He says it took about 30 minutes to reach a Baidu customer representative on the phone.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"Baidu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.","quote":"Baidu didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"Local police issued a statement around midnight saying the situation was likely caused by a system malfunction and remained under investigation.","quote":"Local police in Wuhan issued a statement around midnight in China that said the situation was “likely caused by a system malfunction,” but the incident is still under investigation.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"At least two other collisions occurred the same day, according to photos and videos.","quote":"There were at least two other collisions on the same day, according to photos and videos posted on Chinese social media.","source_index":0,"when":null}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.wired.com/story/robotaxi-outage-in-china-leaves-passengers-stuck-in-cars-on-highways/"]}}