Driverless taxis operated by tech giant Baidu suddenly shut down in the middle of the road due to a system malfunction, bringing local traffic to a complete standstill. Social media footage captured one of the autonomous vehicles causing a highway accident, though authorities confirmed all passengers were safely evacuated with no injuries reported. Baidu has not yet released an official statement regarding the incident, but a comprehensive investigation is currently underway. The event has reignited global debates over the safety of autonomous vehicles, following similar high-profile disruptions like a December 2025 Waymo outage in San Francisco and an August 2025 crash in Chongqing.