On the afternoon and evening of December 17th, multiple navigation software systems in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China experienced sudden abnormality. Platforms such as Baidu Maps, Amap, and Tencent Maps all simultaneously malfunctioned, impacting city services that rely on location services such as food delivery, ride-hailing, and bike-sharing. This incident drew widespread attention and sparked discussions among citizens.
According to various mainland Chinese media outlets and social media platforms, the navigation malfunction started around 2:30 PM on the 17th and lasted for several hours, mainly affecting areas like Hexi and Yuantong in Nanjing. Users affected by the malfunction reported seeing messages like “driving on non-existent roads” on their navigation interfaces, with missing map backgrounds and inability to load road and location information.
Real-time services relying on navigation systems were hit the hardest. Many food delivery riders mentioned that after navigation failure, they had to rely on experience and street signs to find their destinations, causing significant delays in some orders. Ride-hailing drivers and taxi drivers struggled to accurately pinpoint locations for pickups and drop-offs, with some drivers mentioning that they could hardly complete any effective orders since 4 PM that day.
Bike-sharing platforms also experienced abnormalities. Some users were prompted by the system that they were “out of operation range” when trying to return bikes, only to find out later that the destination was mistakenly marked tens of kilometers away. Many netizens complained online, with some stating that even though they were in downtown Nanjing, the location displayed was in Jurong.
By around 10 PM on the 17th, the navigation and positioning functions in Nanjing’s urban area had mostly returned to normal. Currently, major navigation service providers like Baidu and Amap have not publicly explained the specific technical reasons for this collective malfunction.
This incident has prompted discussions among netizens regarding the heavy reliance of large cities on digital navigation and positioning systems.