A VICIOUS robot pinned down a worker in a Tesla factory and sunk its metal claws into his back and arm leaving a “trail of blood”.
The machine reportedly launched its brutal attack at Elon Musk‘s Giga Texas factory near Austin in front of two horrified witnesses.
PR HandoutA Tesla engineer has reportedly been attacked by a robot in a factory near Austin, Texas[/caption]
AFPThe man was reportedly pinned to a wall and suffered an ‘open wound’ to his hand[/caption]
ReutersA ‘trail of blood’ was reportedly left along the Tesla factory surface[/caption]
The victim, a Tesla engineer, was said to have been programming software for two other robots when he was suddenly pinned against a wall by one machine designed to move aluminium car parts.
He managed to walk away from the ambush with an “open wound” on his left hand, it was reportedly revealed in a 2021 incident report filed with regulators.
It is said the robot was supposed to have been switched off to allow the worker to perform the maintenance necessary – but wasn’t.
Technology website The Information reported the engineer struggled to free himself from the robot’s firm grasp before another worker hit an emergency “stop” button.
Once free, he fell “a couple of feet down a chute designed to collect scrap aluminium, leaving a trail of blood behind him”.
A brief entry from November 10, 2021 in a log of work-related injuries and illnesses mentioned a “laceration, cut, open wound” to a worker’s left hand with the “cause object: robot”.
Two witnesses provided a more detailed account of what unfolded on the factory floor to The Information.
The publication reported about one in every 21 workers at Tesla’s Giga Texas factory was injured on the job in 2022, compared with an industry median rate of one in every 30 workers, according to reports filed to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
More severe workplace injuries were slightly less common, with one in every 26 workers reportedly suffering one at the Texas factory compared with a median rate of one in every 38 workers.
Other incidents on the job reportedly included one which saw a worker’s ankle caught under a moving cart, which left them unable to work for 127 days, and another which resulted in a head injury that prevented them from working for 85 days.
Blunt force trauma, chemical exposures, sprains, cuts and fractures, and sicknesses stemming from contact with toxins like ammonia also feature in health and safety reports, according to the Daily Mail.
The Sun has reached out to Tesla for comment.
Tesla’s Giga Texas factory is understood to have more than 10 million square feet of floor space, or nearly 100 football fields in total area.
Co-founder and CEO of Tesla Elon Musk took to X, formerly Twitter, with a cryptic message following the dystopian-like attack in Texas.
Early Tuesday morning, he retweeted a post by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley which read: “We need to cancel cancel culture. We should be about building others up rather than tearing people down for a moment in the sun.”
The post continued: “People always show who their true colors are. Just let them show you who they are by their actions.
“What’s insane is people who attack or try to bring down others serving a community and helping others.”
Musk has not posted anything else related to the incident.
AFPThe inside of the Tesla Giga Texas manufacturing facility in April 2022[/caption]