Report: Engineer at Tesla Factory Attacked by Robot During Violent and Bloody Malfunction

Tesla has been at the forefront of a lot of innovations in the electric vehicle field and they are making use of robots in their factory in Texas. The company is run by Elon Musk who has shown he isn't afraid to explore breakthrough technology not only with Tesla but also with things like Space X. But anything can run into problems.

According to a report from the Daily Mail, something went wrong in what sounded like a bad television movie with an assembly robot gone haywire.

The incident occurred at the Tesla's Giga Texas factory:

Two witnesses watched in horror as their fellow employee was attacked by the machine designed to grab and move freshly cast aluminum car parts.
The robot had pinned the man, who was then programming software for two disabled Tesla robots nearby, before sinking its metal claws into the worker's back and arm, leaving a 'trail of blood' along the factory surface.

Tesla's 2021 Annual Compliance Report for the factory revealed the attack, however, not in great detail.

According to Tesla, the engineer's wounds, which were inflicted on his left hand, required 'zero' days off from work for recovery.
The two eyewitnesses to the event — which occurred in the section of the Texas factory floor where vehicle chassis are first assembled — told reporters for The Information a more harrowing story, however.
As the bleeding Tesla engineer attempted to wrestle free from the assembly robot's grasp, another worker hit an emergency 'stop' button to end the attack.

When the engineer was able to get free, he fell down a chute made for collecting scrap aluminum, trailing blood as he fell, according to the report. The robot had reportedly tried to stab its claws into his back and arms. He had a laceration and an open wound to his left hand. He didn't have to take off time from work, the report said.

That sounds like a pretty scary experience, and one has to wonder what caused the robot to malfunction like that.

That was just an assembly robot, designed to grab and move aluminum car parts. But it wasn't supposed to be grabbing humans.

This doesn't even deal with the new Optimus robot that you can see in the following clips that Tesla has developed. But if you look at the robots they're working on, you can see they're enormously capable.

Tesla Robot Driving a Cybertruck for Uber https://t.co/t27AWGmPm6 via @YouTube
— Dr. Nickarama (@nickaramaOG) December 26, 2023

So you would have to wonder what these could do if they malfunctioned and went off the rails if you already have an issue with the factory assembly line robot. Would they be more or less problematic?

Beyond the incident at Tesla, other concerning incidents have indicated the potential for problems.

Reports of increased injuries due to robotic coworkers at Amazon shipment centers, killer droid-surgeons, self-driving cars, and even violence from robotic chess instructors, have led some to question speedy integration of the new tech.

These are likely a small percentage, but it still raises the question of whether there are better ways to head off such problems now and in the future with such technology.