Commercial robot incidents, Q1 2024
Q1 2024: 10 documented incidents involving commercial robots (+43% on the quarter before), 7 with a person hurt and 5 fatal. 0 reached a regulator, a recall or a court. Most involved Starship Technologies (2). Largest class: robot arm (4).
Incidents are counted by the date they happened, 2024-01-01 to 2024-03-31. 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: Q4 2023.
By kind of machine
- Robot arm4
- Delivery2
- Autonomous vehicle1
- Consumer1
- Humanoid1
- Industrial1
By company
- Starship Technologies2
- Waymo1
By outcome
- fatality5
- minor injury2
- property damage2
- no harm1
The cases that reached furthest
Ordered by severity, then by how many independent sources the case rests on.
- 2024-03-29A robot arm crushed a factory worker to death in Chon Buri, Thailand.Report
- 2024-03-28A robot arm slammed down onto a worker, pinning him to a bench and killing him while he was laying out sheets of metal at the Vandapac factory in Chonburi province, Thailand.Report
- 2024-03-28A robot arm crushed a worker to death at a factory in Thailand, according to the article headline and brief text available.Report
- 2024-03-27A factory worker was pinned to a bench and crushed to death by a robot at the Vandapac factory in Chonburi, Thailand.Report
- 2024-02-22Employee Dies From Chest Injuries When Crushed By Robot ArmInvestigation
- 2024-02-06A Waymo driverless robotaxi struck a bicyclist who was occluded by a truck at the intersection of 17th Street and Mississippi Street in San Francisco, resulting in minor injuries to the cyclist who was not taken to the hospital.Investigation
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 10 incidents dated Q1 2024
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.
- 2024-03-29A robot arm crushed a factory worker to death in Chon Buri, Thailand.Report
- 2024-03-28A robot arm slammed down onto a worker, pinning him to a bench and killing him while he was laying out sheets of metal at the Vandapac factory in Chonburi province, Thailand.Report
- 2024-03-28A robot arm crushed a worker to death at a factory in Thailand, according to the article headline and brief text available.Report
- 2024-03-27A factory worker was pinned to a bench and crushed to death by a robot at the Vandapac factory in Chonburi, Thailand.Report
- 2024-03-05A robotic vacuum exploded at a family home in Fenton, raising concerns about a broader safety problemReport
- 2024-03-04Saudi humanoid robot 'Muhammad' allegedly touched a female reporter inappropriately on her back during its public launch at the DeepFast event in Riyadh.Report
- 2024-02-22Employee Dies From Chest Injuries When Crushed By Robot ArmInvestigation
- 2024-02-06A Waymo driverless robotaxi struck a bicyclist who was occluded by a truck at the intersection of 17th Street and Mississippi Street in San Francisco, resulting in minor injuries to the cyclist who was not taken to the hospital.Investigation
- 2024-02-01A Starship Technologies food delivery robot operated for S Group slid off an icy sidewalk in Helsinki, scratching both doors of a parked car, then fled the scene after a passerby placed it back on the road.Report
- 2024-01-17Two Starship delivery robots faced a stalemate on a Cambridge street corner, unable to pass each other.Report