Incident 620: A Robot at a Tesla Factory in Texas Allegedly Injured an Engineer

Description: A Tesla manufacturing robot at the Giga Texas factory is reported to have malfunctioned, injuring an engineer. The robot, which was designed for handling car parts, is described as having caused a significant open wound in the engineer. This incident occurred in the context of broader safety concerns at the factory, with evidence suggesting underreporting of workplace accidents. The 2021 incident highlights the risks associated with robotic automation in industrial settings.

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Alleged: Tesla developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Tesla workers and Tesla engineer.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
620
Report Count
5
Incident Date
2021-11-10
Editors
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

7.3. Lack of capability or robustness

Risk Domain

  1. AI system safety, failures, and limitations

Entity

AI

Timing

Post-deployment

Intent

Unintentional

Tesla robot ATTACKS an engineer at company's Texas factory during violent malfunction - leaving 'trail of blood' and forcing workers to hit emergency shutdown button
dailymail.co.uk · 2023

A Tesla engineer was attacked by a robot during a brutal and bloody malfunction at the company's Giga Texas factory near Austin.

Two witnesses watched in horror as their fellow employee was attacked by the machine designed to grab and move …

Tesla factory worker attacked by robot that dug its claws into back and arm
nypost.com · 2023

A Tesla software engineer suffered serious injuries when he was attacked by a malfunctioning robot on the floor of the electric car maker’s factory in Austin, Texas.

Witnesses told the Information last month that the robot, which was design…

Tesla engineer attacked by robot at company’s Giga Texas factory, report says
independent.co.uk · 2023

A Tesla engineer at the company’s factory near Austin was allegedly attacked by a robot in 2021, according to an incident report filed with regulators.

Witnesses allegedly observed the robot at the Giga Texas factory pin the engineer and cl…

Elon Musk robot attacks worker in Tesla factory
news.com.au · 2023

A Tesla engineer was attacked by a robot at the company's Giga Texas factory near Austin as revelations mount up about the company's working environment.

According to the Daily Mail, two witnesses watched in horror as their colleague was at…

Robot attacked Tesla engineer at Texas factory: Report
newsnationnow.com · 2023
  • Report: Robot dug metal claws into engineer's back
  • Report: Robot was designed to move aluminum car parts
  • Witnesses: Attack left 'trail of blood'

(NewsNation) — A Tesla engineer was allegedly attacked by a robot at a factory near Austin, a…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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