A Glovo delivery driver named Sebastian Galassi died in a traffic accident while making a delivery, and the next day his family received an automated email from Glovo's system firing him for 'non-compliance with terms and conditions' due to missing delivery times.
On October 1, 2022, Sebastian Galassi, a 26-year-old graphic design student working as a delivery driver for Glovo in Florence, Italy, died when his moped collided with a Land Rover SUV while making a late-night delivery. The following day, October 2, Galassi's family received an automated email from Glovo's system informing them that Sebastian had been fired for 'non-compliance with the terms and conditions' due to missing delivery times. The email was an automated response triggered when riders miss delivery deadlines. Glovo representatives called the family to apologize, claiming the message was sent 'by mistake' and offering to pay some funeral costs. The incident sparked a 24-hour strike by delivery drivers organized by the CGIL trade union on October 5, 2022. The mayor of Florence criticized the 'inhumane system' where algorithms send firing emails without ethical considerations. The union highlighted how the piecework payment system forces drivers to rush and take risks to earn more money, contributing to high accident rates in the delivery sector. This was part of a pattern of delivery driver deaths in Italy, with three other fatalities reported in Tuscany in 2022.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Users anthropomorphizing, trusting, or relying on AI systems, leading to emotional or material dependence and inappropriate relationships with or expectations of AI systems. Trust can be exploited by malicious actors (e.g., to harvest personal information or enable manipulation), or result in harm from inappropriate use of AI in critical situations (e.g., medical emergency). Overreliance on AI systems can compromise autonomy and weaken social ties.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed