Robot incidents in 1979
The Machine Record holds 1 incident involving commercial robots in 1979: 1 where a person was hurt, 1 of them fatal, and 0 that reached a regulator, a recall or a court.
Counts measure what was reported in the press the register reads and cleared verification, not how many events took place. Fleet sizes are not public, so none of this is a rate. The rules are on the methodology page.
Reading the numbers
The 1 case dated 1979 is spread over 1 month and 11 months without a case. The newest case is dated 1979-01-25: A 25-year-old Ford assembly line worker was killed instantly when a robot arm struck him in the head while he was gathering parts in a storage facility at a Ford casting plant in Flat Rock, Michigan.
Most cases are placed in the United States (1).
The most common type of event is fatality (1). None of the cases has yet gone beyond the first report.
Every case dated 1979
Newest first. Each one links to its timeline and to the sources it rests on.
New cases, once a week, by email
Every case added to the register in the last seven days, with its sources. Free, no account, and the register is the only sender.