China Halts L4 Autonomous Driving Permits After Baidu Robotaxi Malfunction

According to Bloomberg, citing informed sources, China has suspended the issuance of new L4 autonomous driving permits. The trigger was a large-scale malfunction of Baidu's "Roto-Go" autonomous driving taxis in Wuhan on March 31, where over 100 Robotaxis were stranded on city roads, causing passenger delays and traffic disruptions. As a result of this news, Baidu's Hong Kong stock dropped by more than 3% at one point on Wednesday.

Level 4 autonomous driving means that vehicles do not require human intervention under specific conditions, so the regulatory focus of this accident is not just a single operational failure but the safety monitoring capabilities at the city level pilot. Informed sources said that earlier this month, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Transport have convened a meeting with city officials who have Robotaxi or autonomous driving pilots, requiring local governments to conduct a comprehensive self-inspection and strengthen safety monitoring to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

Informed sources said that during the suspension period, autonomous driving companies cannot add new Robotaxi vehicles, cannot start new testing projects, and cannot enter new cities; Baidu is the most directly affected, as its Wuhan Robotaxi operations have been suspended during the local investigation, and the company has not yet explained the cause of the malfunction.

At present, the impact has not spread to a complete industry shutdown. Pony AI has stated that its services in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are currently operating normally, and preparations in Changsha and Hangzhou are still progressing as planned; WeRide expresses support for regulation to ensure the industry's highest safety standards, and its services in China are still operating normally.