China orders safety checks on smart vehicle road tests after robotaxi incident

Baidu

14/04/2026 11:54

BEIJING, April 14 (Reuters) - China has ordered local authorities to conduct self-inspections and strengthen safety oversight of road tests involving intelligent connected vehicles following a recent incident.

Local governments should identify and analyse key issues and carry out rectification work with due diligence, the industry ministry said on Tuesday in a statement after a meeting held jointly with officials from the public security and transportation ministries.

The meeting followed a recent robotaxi outage involving multiple vehicles operated by Baidu's 9888.HK Apollo Go in central Chinese city of Wuhan, which has revived safety concerns over the fast-growing service.

(Reporting by Ethan Wang and Ryan Woo)

((Ethan.Wang@thomsonreuters.com;))