EVwire brief: China has suspended issuing new permits for Level 4 autonomous vehicles after more than 100 Apollo Go robotaxis operated by Baidu stalled in Wuhan on March 31. The incident resulted in passengers being stranded and traffic being disrupted.
The temporary suspension prevents companies from adding vehicles to fleets, launching new pilot programs, or expanding into new cities, according to people reportedly familiar with the matter.
Baidu’s robotaxi operations in Wuhan have also been suspended while the incident is under investigation. The cause of the outage has not been confirmed, though local authorities cited a likely systems fault. It is unclear how long the permit suspension will remain in place.
Baidu’s robotaxi operations in Wuhan have been temporarily suspended
Context:
Authorities, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), convened a meeting with cities running autonomous driving pilots and instructed local governments to conduct full safety reviews on robotaxi services. They also called for stronger monitoring systems.
Shares of Baidu fell 2.8% in Hong Kong trading following the news, while Pony AI and WeRide declined 5.5% and 4.7%, respectively. Both companies said their existing services in cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are still operating normally.
The temporary suspension marks at least the second time Chinese regulators have paused new autonomous driving permits following a Baidu-related incident.
Authorities have called for full safety reviews of robotaxi services
China’s emerging robotaxi industry
China’s robotaxi sector has been scaling rapidly. Baidu is the country’s largest robotaxi provider, with Apollo Go operating hundreds of vehicles across more than a dozen cities.
China’s broader robotaxi market is projected to reach 83.1 billion yuan ($12.2 billion) by 2030, according to estimates from Soochow Securities.
Regulatory sensitivity around the robotaxi sector has also been shaped by public response. In Wuhan, residents previously protested robotaxi deployments over concerns about job displacement among taxi drivers.
This prompted authorities to temporarily freeze approvals in late 2024 before resuming permitting in early 2025.
Source: Bloomberg News
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