A Tesla engineer was attacked by a robot due to a mechanical failure at a company factory located near Austin, Texas. According to the testimony of two of his colleagues, the worker was attacked by a machine designed to grab and move newly cast aluminum car parts.
Tesla Robot Attacks a Worker
The man was programming software for two other Tesla robots that were not working when another robot caught him with its weapon arm, causing several injuries to his back and also one arm. The incident, which also left the victim with an open wound on his left hand, was included in a 2021 injury report submitted to Travis County and federal regulators but has barely seen public light following a report by the Daily Mail.
Although no other robot-related injuries were reported to regulators by Tesla at the Texas factory in the months since the incident comes amid years of growing concerns about the risks of automated robots in the workplace. The injury report, which Tesla is required to file with authorities by law for tax reasons in the state of Texas, stated that the engineer did not need to take time off work after the accident.
However, a lawyer representing Tesla contract workers in Giga Texas has told the Daily Mail that she believes, based on her conversations with workers there, that the number of injuries suffered at the factory is much higher. Here is the complete description of what happened according to the report that was revealed:
“The brief report from November 10, 2021, describes how an open wound was inflicted on an engineer and the causing object was a robot. According to Tesla, the engineer’s injuries, which were to his left hand, did not require any days off for recovery. However, the two eyewitnesses to the event, which occurred on the section of the Texas factory floor where vehicle chassis are initially assembled, said that as the Tesla engineer was bleeding and trying to free himself from the assembly robot’s grip, Another worker pressed an emergency stop button to end the attack.”
This story was written in Spanish by Miguel Fernandez in Cultura Colectiva News.
