China Resumes Robotaxi Licenses After Months-Long Freeze | Momenta Gets First Approval for Shenzhen Testing
TL;DR
After suspending robotaxi licenses following the April Baidu Apollo Go Wuhan incident, China quietly resumed approvals in some cities from late June following an industry-wide safety review.
China, which suspended new robotaxi licenses following the April Baidu Apollo Go incident, has been gradually resuming approvals since late June. Sources say after regulators completed an industry-wide safety review at the end of June, some cities began gradually resuming approvals for autonomous driving licenses.
Incident recap: on March 31, 2026, Baidu's Apollo Go robotaxis experienced widespread vehicle stalls in Wuhan, Hubei, trapping multiple passengers inside vehicles and causing traffic jams. The incident triggered regulatory alarm, and authorities ordered an industry-wide comprehensive safety review. The following three months saw robotaxi license approvals frozen in several first-tier Chinese cities.
One of the first companies to get approved is Beijing Momenta, which received permission to run robotaxi tests in Shenzhen, Guangdong. The combination is worth noting — Momenta wasn't a top license holder before the freeze, and Shenzhen is a relatively friendly test environment. Regulators chose "new entrant + policy-friendly city" for the thaw, rather than letting Apollo Go and Pony.ai resume expansion directly.
via Zaobao / Bloomberg
Incident recap: on March 31, 2026, Baidu's Apollo Go robotaxis experienced widespread vehicle stalls in Wuhan, Hubei, trapping multiple passengers inside vehicles and causing traffic jams. The incident triggered regulatory alarm, and authorities ordered an industry-wide comprehensive safety review. The following three months saw robotaxi license approvals frozen in several first-tier Chinese cities.
One of the first companies to get approved is Beijing Momenta, which received permission to run robotaxi tests in Shenzhen, Guangdong. The combination is worth noting — Momenta wasn't a top license holder before the freeze, and Shenzhen is a relatively friendly test environment. Regulators chose "new entrant + policy-friendly city" for the thaw, rather than letting Apollo Go and Pony.ai resume expansion directly.
via Zaobao / Bloomberg
