Commercial robot incidents, Q4 2023
Q4 2023: 7 documented incidents involving commercial robots (-22% on the quarter before), 5 with a person hurt and 2 fatal. 2 reached a regulator, a recall or a court. Most involved Cruise (2). Largest class: autonomous vehicle (4).
Incidents are counted by the date they happened, 2023-10-01 to 2023-12-31. 0 cases were published to the register during the quarter, including older events documented for the first time. Counts measure what was reported in English and cleared verification; fleet sizes are not public, so nothing here is a rate. Rules on the methodology page. Previous quarter for comparison: Q3 2023.
By kind of machine
- Autonomous vehicle4
- Robot arm2
- Consumer1
By company
- Cruise2
- Cruise (GM)1
- Waymo1
By outcome
- serious injury3
- fatality2
- property damage2
The cases that reached furthest
Ordered by severity, then by how many independent sources the case rests on.
- 2023-11-08A robotics company employee in his 40s was crushed to death by a robotic arm at a pepper sorting plant in South Gyeongsang province, South Korea, after the arm confused him for a box of vegetables and pushed him against a conveyor belt.Follow-up
- 2023-11-07A man in his 40s employed by an industrial robot installation company was crushed to death by a pick-and-place robotic arm at a vegetable-packaging plant in South Gyeongsang province, South Korea, after the robot apparently mistook him for a box of vegetables.Follow-up
- 2023-10-02A Cruise robotaxi ran over a pedestrian who had been pushed into its path by a hit-and-run vehicle and pinned the person beneath its tire in San Francisco, leading to California regulators revoking Cruise's robotaxi permits.Report
- 2023-10-02A Cruise autonomous vehicle struck and dragged a pedestrian approximately 20 feet on October 2, 2023, after she was first hit by a human-driven car.Report
- 2023-10-01Cruise fined $500,000 by DOJ for submitting a false report omitting that its robotaxi dragged a pedestrian in October 2023 in San Francisco.Fine
- 2023-12-22Robotic vacuum cleaner: Mini vacuum sweeperRecall
Whose incidents reach consequences
Share of a company's recorded incidents, across the whole register, that reached a regulator, a recall or a court. Companies with fewer than the threshold of cases are left out. Register total: 280 cases, 39 escalated.
- Zoox5/9 · 56%
- Cruise3/10 · 30%
- Tesla2/15 · 13%
- Starship Technologies1/9 · 11%
- Waymo5/69 · 7%
- Unitree Robotics0/11 · 0%
What the operators wrote in their own crash reports
1437 crash reports filed with NHTSA by 17 operators under the Standing General Order, read by theme. The federal file has one structured column for what was struck; these counts exist nowhere else.
- Emergency responders on scene, most often Waymo LLC128
- Stopped or blocking traffic, most often Waymo LLC124
- A pedestrian involved, most often Waymo LLC59
- A cyclist or scooter rider, most often Waymo LLC41
- Rear-ended by another vehicle, most often Zoox, Inc.36
- Roadworks, cones or a closure, most often Waymo LLC24
All 7 incidents dated Q4 2023
Newest first. Each one links to its timeline and to the sources it rests on. Case metadata is CC BY 4.0; cite the register by its DOI, 10.5281/zenodo.22925531.
- 2023-12-22Robotic vacuum cleaner: Mini vacuum sweeperRecall
- 2023-12-11Two unoccupied Waymo robotaxis separately collided with the same improperly towed pickup truck in Phoenix, Arizona on December 11, 2023, resulting in minor damage and no injuries, prompting Waymo's first-ever software recall.Report
- 2023-11-08A robotics company employee in his 40s was crushed to death by a robotic arm at a pepper sorting plant in South Gyeongsang province, South Korea, after the arm confused him for a box of vegetables and pushed him against a conveyor belt.Follow-up
- 2023-11-07A man in his 40s employed by an industrial robot installation company was crushed to death by a pick-and-place robotic arm at a vegetable-packaging plant in South Gyeongsang province, South Korea, after the robot apparently mistook him for a box of vegetables.Follow-up
- 2023-10-02A Cruise autonomous vehicle struck and dragged a pedestrian approximately 20 feet on October 2, 2023, after she was first hit by a human-driven car.Report
- 2023-10-02A Cruise robotaxi ran over a pedestrian who had been pushed into its path by a hit-and-run vehicle and pinned the person beneath its tire in San Francisco, leading to California regulators revoking Cruise's robotaxi permits.Report
- 2023-10-01Cruise fined $500,000 by DOJ for submitting a false report omitting that its robotaxi dragged a pedestrian in October 2023 in San Francisco.Fine