Commercial robot incidents, Q1 2026
Q1 2026: 35 documented incidents involving commercial robots (+3% on the quarter before), 14 with a person hurt and 0 fatal. 1 reached a regulator, a recall or a court. Most involved Waymo (12). Largest class: autonomous vehicle (18).
Incidents are counted by the date they happened, 2026-01-01 to 2026-03-31. 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 2025.
By kind of machine
- Autonomous vehicle18
- Delivery7
- Humanoid5
- Consumer2
- Service2
- Robot arm1
By company
- Waymo12
- Coco Robotics2
- Xpeng2
- Avride1
- Baidu1
- Boston Dynamics1
- DJI1
- Honda1
By outcome
- no harm11
- minor injury10
- property damage10
- serious injury4
Notable
The cases that reached furthest
Ordered by severity, then by how many independent sources the case rests on.
- 2026-02-17Tesla's Robotaxi fleet in Austin accumulated 14 crashes since June 2025, including one July 2025 incident later upgraded to require hospitalization, with the fleet crashing at approximately four times the rate of human drivers by Tesla's own benchmark.Follow-up
- 2026-01-29Waymo robotaxi struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica.Follow-up
- 2026-02-05A robotic vacuum cleaner's lithium battery caught fire inside a Miami Gardens home, resulting in a 20-year-old man being airlifted to hospital with injuries.Report
- 2026-02-01A Waymo autonomous vehicle (Jaguar I-Pace) was involved in a crash with van in San Francisco, CA, reported to NHTSA as moderate w/ hospitalizationReport
- 2026-01-23A driverless Waymo robotaxi struck a child who had stepped into the street from behind an SUV during morning drop-off outside a Santa Monica elementary school, resulting in minor injuries.Investigation
- 2026-03-25During a public robot dance show in Shaanxi, China, a humanoid robot performing a spinning routine swung its arm outward and struck a young boy standing near the stage.Report
Escalation index
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%
Filed with the regulator
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
Every case
All 35 incidents dated Q1 2026
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.
- 2026-03-31Uber Eats delivery robots were vandalised in a Sheffield suburbReport
- 2026-03-31A system malfunction caused multiple Baidu Apollo Go driverless robotaxis to stall in the middle of roads in Wuhan, leaving passengers stranded for hours, with police confirming the incident after receiving numerous calls on Tuesday night.Follow-up
- 2026-03-25During a public robot dance show in Shaanxi, China, a humanoid robot performing a spinning routine swung its arm outward and struck a young boy standing near the stage.Report
- 2026-03-25A Waymo robotaxi stalled during a wildfire near I-280 and was moved to safety by the California Highway Patrol.Report
- 2026-03-23A Serve Robotics food delivery robot crashed into and shattered the glass of a CTA bus shelter at Grand and Racine in Chicago's West Town neighborhood, with no injuries reported.Follow-up
- 2026-03-17Reporter trapped inside a self-driving robotaxi during an anti-robot protest attack on the vehicle.Report
- 2026-03-17A service robot at what social media users claimed was a Haidilao hotpot restaurant in China malfunctioned, knocking plates off a counter and swinging its arms erratically while a staff member attempted to restrain it.Follow-up
- 2026-03-11An unoccupied Waymo robotaxi stopped between a railroad crossing arm and the tracks in Texas, remaining stationary as a train passed within inches of the vehicle.Report
- 2026-03-03Waymo robotaxi blocked a road during a mass shooting incident in the USReport
- 2026-03-02A Waymo robotaxi blocked first responders at the scene of an Austin mass shooting.Report
- 2026-03-02A Waymo driverless vehicle blocked a road for more than a minute near an active mass shooting scene in Austin, causing an ambulance to turn around, though Austin-Travis County EMS said it did not believe the obstruction had an impact on patient outcomes.Regulator action
- 2026-03-01A Waymo autonomous vehicle (Jaguar I-Pace) was involved in a crash with suv in Inglewood, CA, reported to NHTSA as minor w/ hospitalizationReport
- 2026-03-01A Waymo autonomous vehicle (Jaguar I-Pace) was involved in a crash with pickup truck in Austin, TX, reported to NHTSA as minor w/ hospitalizationReport
- 2026-03-01A Waymo robotaxi became stuck perpendicular across a road while executing a U-turn during an active shooter incident in Austin, Texas, blocking an ambulance and requiring a police officer to manually drive it away.Follow-up
- 2026-02-27Waymo robotaxis were involved in an accident on their first day of operations in Charlotte.Report
- 2026-02-21A software engineer inadvertently discovered a security vulnerability in DJI's backend servers that granted him access to live camera feeds, microphone audio, floor maps, and status data from nearly 7,000 DJI Romo robot vacuums across 24 countries.Report
- 2026-02-20A Coco food delivery robot uprooted a garden, became entangled in a fence, and dragged the fencing down the street in East Hollywood, Los Angeles, causing property damage to a resident's yard.Report
- 2026-02-18Chinese robot dog malfunctioned or glitched during India's AI summitReport
- 2026-02-18A Unitree G1 humanoid robot lost its balance while performing in front of a crowd in China, flailed its limbs during a recovery attempt, and kicked a man (apparently its operator) in the nose, causing bleeding and a possible fracture.Report
- 2026-02-17Tesla's Robotaxi fleet in Austin accumulated 14 crashes since June 2025, including one July 2025 incident later upgraded to require hospitalization, with the fleet crashing at approximately four times the rate of human drivers by Tesla's own benchmark.Follow-up
- 2026-02-05Robot glitch at Honda factory caused vehicles to be assembled with loose driver's seats, leading to a recallReport
- 2026-02-05A robotic vacuum cleaner's lithium battery caught fire inside a Miami Gardens home, resulting in a 20-year-old man being airlifted to hospital with injuries.Report
- 2026-02-01A Waymo autonomous vehicle (Jaguar I-Pace) was involved in a crash with van in San Francisco, CA, reported to NHTSA as moderate w/ hospitalizationReport
- 2026-02-01A Waymo autonomous vehicle (Jaguar I-Pace) was involved in a crash with passenger car in San Francisco, CA, reported to NHTSA as minor w/ hospitalizationReport
- 2026-02-01XPeng Motors' humanoid robot IRON fell face-first onto a stage during its first public appearance at a shopping mall in southern China.Follow-up
- 2026-01-31Xpeng's humanoid robot Iron lost its balance and fell face-first onto the ground during its first public appearance at a shopping mall in Shenzhen, China.Report
- 2026-01-29Waymo robotaxi struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica.Follow-up
- 2026-01-29Waymo robotaxi hit a child at a school drop-off location, triggering a federal safety inquiry.Report
- 2026-01-23A driverless Waymo robotaxi struck a child who had stepped into the street from behind an SUV during morning drop-off outside a Santa Monica elementary school, resulting in minor injuries.Investigation
- 2026-01-23An ambulance transporting a patient to a hospital collided with an automated food delivery cart at the intersection of Western and Fountain avenues in Hollywood, causing no additional injuries but requiring the patient to be transferred to a second ambulance.Follow-up
- 2026-01-15An Uber Eats delivery robot became stuck on railroad tracks in Miami and was struck and destroyed by an oncoming train on January 15, 2026, with no injuries reported.Follow-up
- 2026-01-07Boston Dynamics' Atlas humanoid robot performed a backflip during a CES 2026 demonstration in Las Vegas, landing successfully but losing its hand in the process.Report
- 2026-01-01A Waymo autonomous vehicle (Jaguar I-Pace) was involved in a crash with passenger car in Los Angeles, CA, reported to NHTSA as minor w/ hospitalizationReport
- 2026-01-01A Avride Inc. autonomous vehicle (Hyundai Ioniq 5) was involved in a crash with passenger car in Dallas, TX, reported to NHTSA as minor w/ hospitalizationReport
- 2026-01-01A May Mobility autonomous vehicle (Toyota Sienna) was involved in a crash with other fixed object in Atlanta, GA, reported to NHTSA as minor w/ hospitalizationReport