A newly-surfaced injury report has revealed that a Tesla robot attacked and injured a human engineer at a Tesla gigafactory in 2021, resulting in the engineer sustaining an “open wound.”
According to a 2021 injury report reviewed by The Daily Mail, the 2021 injury report, which was filed to federal regulators and Travis County regulators, detailed how the unidentified victim was attacked by the Tesla robot at the company’s factory that is located near Austin, Texas.
The report claims that a robot typically used for handling new aluminum car parts at the Tesla factory pinned and scratched the engineer with its metal claws before the man’s coworkers were able to press an emergency stop button. While the engineer was able to escape from the robot, the man reportedly lost his balance during the attack and fell backward down a metal chute that was used for collecting aluminum.
READ MORE: Videos: Elon Musk’s new ‘humanoid’ robot revealed
Prior to the 2021 robot attack, the engineer and a team of Tesla employees were in the process of performing a software update on three of the factory’s robots, according to The Washington Post. Each of the three robots was supposed to be powered down; however, one of the robots was not turned off, which led to the robot attack.
The Daily Mail reported that the attack resulted in a “trail of blood” on the floor of the factory due to the engineer suffering an open wound during the robot attack. However, Tesla’s report indicated that the engineer did not require any time off for recovery.
The Daily Mail reported that while the Texas Tesla factory did not report any other robot-related injuries to regulators in 2021 or 2022, the 2021 robot attack comes as concerns regarding the potential dangers of automated robots in workplace environments have continued to grow in recent years.
The Washington Times also noted that safety concerns have plagued Tesla factories in recent years, with data showing that the workplace injury rate at Tesla is significantly higher than at other factories. The Washington Times reported that Tesla’s Giga Texas facility currently has an injury rate of 1 in 26 workers, while other companies in the electric vehicle industry have an injury rate of roughly 1 in 38 workers.
