Robot incidents in 2022
The Machine Record holds 9 incidents involving commercial robots in 2022, most involving Husqvarna: 6 where a person was hurt, 3 of them fatal, and 4 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 9 cases dated 2022 are spread over 6 months, with June 2022 the busiest at 2 and 6 months without a case. The newest case is dated 2022-09-01: J.T. Beckham, a man in his 20s, was killed when he was pinned by a welding robot at the Unipres USA manufacturing plant in Forest, Mississippi.
Husqvarna accounts for 2 of the 9 cases (22%), followed by Amazon with 1; 5 cases name no company. By kind of machine, autonomous vehicles make up 22% of the set, ahead of consumer robots (2). Most cases are placed in the United States (5), with 2 other countries represented.
In 33% of the cases someone died. 6 cases (67%) record a person hurt, 3 of them fatal. The most common type of event is recall (4). 4 cases (44%) went beyond the first report to an investigation, a regulator, a recall, a fine or a court.
By kind of machine
By outcome
Every case dated 2022
Newest first. Each one links to its timeline and to the sources it rests on.
- 2022-09-01Cruise recalls robotaxis after a passenger was injured in a crash.Recall
- 2022-09-01J.T. Beckham, a man in his 20s, was killed when he was pinned by a welding robot at the Unipres USA manufacturing plant in Forest, Mississippi.Report
- 2022-07-21Chess robot grabbed and broke the finger of a seven-year-old child during a matchReport
- 2022-07-05Husqvarna's Automower 435X and Automower 535 robot lawn mowers caught fire during battery charging, resulting in five reported fire incidents, prompting a safety recall by the OPSS.Recall
- 2022-06-03A Cruise driverless robotaxi braked harshly while making an unprotected left turn and was struck by an oncoming speeding vehicle in San Francisco, resulting in minor injuries.Recall
- 2022-06-03A 71-year-old man died on June 26, 2022, after undergoing robotic surgery to remove prostate cancer at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London on June 3, 2022, with a lawsuit alleging the hospital lacked the resources to safely perform the procedure and failed to transfer him sooner to a major medical center.Report
- 2022-05-16A man was crushed to death by the compactor mechanism of an automated dumpster in Alexandroupolis, Greece, after reaching inside the bin.Report
- 2022-03-08A man claiming to be an Amazon warehouse employee posted a viral TikTok video showing himself temporarily trapped in an aisle by automatically moving robotic shelving units, taking approximately 15 minutes to find a way out with no reported injury.Report
- 2022-02-17Husqvarna Recalls All-Wheel Drive Robotic Lawnmowers Due to Fire Hazard (Recall Alert)Recall
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.