A Tesla robot at the Giga Texas factory attacked a software engineer in 2021, pinning him and clawing his back and arm with metal claws, leaving a trail of blood before another worker hit an emergency stop button.
In 2021, a Tesla software engineer was attacked by a robot at the company's Giga Texas factory near Austin. The robot, designed to grab and move freshly cast aluminum car parts, pinned the engineer who was programming software for two disabled Tesla robots nearby. The robot sank its metal claws into the worker's back and arm, leaving a 'trail of blood' along the factory surface and causing an 'open wound' on his left hand. Two witnesses watched the attack, and another worker had to hit an emergency stop button to free the engineer. Once released, the engineer fell a couple of feet down a chute designed to collect scrap aluminum. According to Tesla's injury report filed with Travis County and federal regulators on November 10, 2021, the engineer required zero days off work for recovery. The incident occurred in the section of the factory floor where vehicle chassis are first assembled. Tesla's injury data shows the Giga Texas plant has higher injury rates than industry averages, with nearly one out of every 21 workers injured in 2022 compared to an industry median of one in 30 workers.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that fail to perform reliably or effectively under varying conditions, exposing them to errors and failures that can have significant consequences, especially in critical applications or areas that require moral reasoning.
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