Chinese authorities impose a cooling-off period for robotaxis

According to industry watchers, the Chinese robotaxis and autonomous driving systems in general are making big strides in the country. However, due to an incident in Wuhan on March 31 this year, regulatory bodies imposed a "cooling-off" period in which companies cannot deploy any new autonomous vehicles for passenger use.

The incident in question involved nearly 100 vehicles that suddenly ceased operation and caused chaos on the streets of Wuhan. Baidu's Apollo Go robotaxi service owns the vehicles, and the cooling-off period will likely last until the end of June.

The decision was made by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Transport.

Despite the cooling-off period, companies are not adjusting their target for 2026. Pony.ai, for example, is planning to have 3,500 autonomous vehicles on the streets by the end of 2026, which is about double the current fleet. Apollo Go, on the other hand, has reported 3.2 million orders in just the first quarter of this year.

Even though the imposed measures aren't that strict, people from the industry are calling for a more nuanced approach, not blanket regulations. For instance, WeRide's CEO Han Xu suggests that regulators should start rewarding companies with a solid safety record and impose penalties only on robotaxi companies with poor safety performance. Just like in the aviation industry.

Via