Wuhan Radish Express collectively "paralyzed"? Some passengers were trapped on the elevated road for nearly two hours, and customer service said it was caused by a network issue.

Ask AI · What caused the Wuhan Luobo Express outage incident?

At around 9:00 p.m. on March 31, several netizens in Hubei posted that Wuhan Luobo Express had collectively shut down, and that multiple passengers said they were trapped on an elevated roadway or main roads. Later that same evening, a Luobo Express customer service representative said that an abnormality in the vehicle driving system was caused by a network issue.

“(The car) directly stopped in the middle of the road on the Third Ring Road, with trucks on both sides, and the car was going really fast.” At about 10:40 p.m. on March 31, Mr. Lu, a Wuhan resident, told the Dute reporter that he was still on a Luobo Express vehicle and had been trapped for nearly two hours. “The SOS on the car was completely useless. It just stopped in the middle of the road and I couldn’t get through at all—I was terrified.” Mr. Lu said. Fortunately, at around 10:00 p.m., the vehicle drove onto the service road beneath the elevated roadway, but he still didn’t dare to get out. “On the elevated section of the Third Ring Road, if you get out, you don’t know where to go.”

Mr. Lu was trapped on the elevated roadway. Photo provided by the interviewee

A video from inside the car provided by Mr. Lu shows that after dialing the phone on the back-seat screen multiple times, the calls were always automatically disconnected. In the end, he reached the official customer service via the 400 number, and customer service said they would send a specialist to pick him up. “I waited for almost an hour, but no one arrived.” With no other choice, Mr. Lu had to call the police for help. “The traffic police said they would come with the Luobo Express driver to take the car away. They were on their way, about 20 minutes or so.” At around 11:00 p.m., Mr. Lu finally waited for the traffic police and Luobo Express staff, and only then was he able to leave the overpass smoothly.

“Customer service kept saying it was a network issue, and I don’t know what the actual problem was.” Mr. Lu said. Luobo Express staff told him that within three days, a dedicated customer service representative would contact him, but they did not mention compensation for passengers.

Luobo Express displays an abnormal driving system inside the car. Photo source: Xiaohongshu user

Another netizen, Ms. Zhou (a pseudonym), who was also trapped, told the Dute reporter that she boarded Luobo Express at around 8:30 p.m. that evening. “After getting on the car, it kept showing that there was a vehicle problem and told me not to open the doors. After about ten-something minutes, it suddenly stopped.” Ms. Zhou said. Because the car was stopped on the elevated roadway, she didn’t dare to get out. “I tried contacting emergency services inside the car and the app’s customer service for a long time before someone answered. They said they would send a specialist, but after waiting for an hour and a half they still hadn’t come, and it didn’t feel reliable.” Ms. Zhou said. Fortunately, she encountered traffic police passing by. She urgently sought help, and the traffic police took her down from the elevated roadway. “In the end, the fare still had to be paid as usual, and customer service didn’t mention any compensation.” Ms. Zhou said.

The reporter noted that on the night of the 31st, many netizens on social platforms reported that Wuhan Luobo Express “had collectively shut down,” and mentioned issues such as the customer service phone number being unreachable and the specialist not arriving for a long time. The reporter called Luobo Express’ official customer service to ask about the situation. The customer service representative said that they could only query the issue on the condition that the vehicle number was provided. Regarding the malfunction incident involving Wuhan Luobo Express, customer service said they did not know the situation. As of the time of publication, Luobo Express’ official account had not released any related information.

In the early hours of April 1, Wuhan traffic police issued a statement, saying that starting at 8:57 p.m. on March 31, the 122报警 center had successively received reports from the public stating that multiple “Luobo Express” vehicles were stopped in the middle of the road and could not move. The public security traffic management and the transport departments, in accordance with the emergency plan, quickly mobilized resources to reach the scene and, together with Luobo Express company staff, carried out the response. After investigation, it was preliminarily judged to be caused by a system failure. At present, passengers have safely gotten off the vehicles, with no injuries to any personnel. The cause of the incident is under further investigation.

Public information shows that Luobo Express (Apollo Go) is an autonomous driving mobility service platform under Baidu. As of October 2025, the total global autonomous driving testing and operations mileage of Luobo Express had exceeded 240 million kilometers, including over 140 million kilometers of fully driverless mileage. Service coverage spans 22 cities worldwide, and it has completed more than 17 million mobility orders in total. Notably, this was not the first time Luobo Express had experienced a malfunction. According to Jiemian News, in July 2024, Luobo Express suddenly “broke down and stopped” on the road during the evening peak period; in the end, after the traffic police called the customer service phone number, the driver entered the driver’s cabin and drove the car to the roadside. Luobo Express staff told the media that if such a situation occurs, they can provide vehicle information to the staff, who will handle it promptly and continue to optimize vehicle technology.

(Author: Dute reporter Gao Lingling)