Assault & bot-tery
Tesla droid digs claws into worker at Austin plant
A Tesla software engineer suffered serious injuries when he was attacked by a malfunctioning robot on the floor of the electriccar maker’s factory in Austin, Texas.
Witnesses told The Information last month that the robot, which was designed to move aluminum car parts, pinned the engineer and sank its metal claws into his back and arm, leaving a trail of blood along the floor.
The engineer was programming software that controls robots whose job it is to cut car parts from freshly cast pieces of aluminum.
While two of the robots were disabled so that the engineer and his crew could work on the machines, a third was inadvertently left on — resulting in the attack two years ago, witnesses told The Information.
The news site said it obtained an injury report that was submitted to federal officials as well as to health authorities in Travis County.
The engineer suffered a “laceration, cut or open wound” on his left hand,
The Information reported.
The injury was apparently not severe enough to require the employee to take time off from work.
Tesla declined to comment.
Injury reports submitted to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration alleged that nearly 1 in 21 workers at the Austin Gigafactory got hurt last year.
In the automotive industry, the median injury rate last year was 1 in every 30 workers.
Several current and former Tesla workers employed at the factory told The Information that the company regularly cut corners on construction, maintenance and operations in a manner that placed them at risk.
Sources told The Information that management’s demands for speedy production have led to safety lapses.
Witnesses reported that heavy machinery including a crane, a steel beam and an air conditioning duct have fallen near workers on car production lines.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s company began construction on the factory in the summer of 2020 after the mogul was outraged by California regulators who limited business operations due to the spread of the coronavirus.