An engineer working at Tesla’s factory has been seriously injured after being attacked by one of the assembly robots.
According to Dailymail, an engineer at Tesla’s Giga Texas factory was unexpectedly attacked by a robot and sustained serious injuries while working.
Two witnesses of the incident reported that they saw their colleague being brutally attacked by a robot designed to pick up and move aluminum car parts. Specifically, the incident is said to have occurred while the engineer was programming software for two Tesla robots that were disabled nearby when the assembly robot suddenly pinned the victim down, subsequently embedding its metal claw into his back and arm, leaving a “trail of blood” along the factory floor.
An engineer at Tesla’s factory is reported to have been injured by a robot (Illustrative image)
This incident reportedly left the victim with multiple “open wounds” on his left arm and was disclosed in an injury report submitted to Travis County and federal agencies in 2021. According to Tesla’s report, the incident involving this engineer occurred on November 10, 2021, and the injuries were not severe enough to require the engineer to take time off work for treatment.
Reports of injuries submitted to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration indicate that nearly one in every 21 workers at the Giga Texas factory was injured last year. In the automotive industry, the average injury rate was 1 in 30 workers in 2022.
Some workers at Tesla have reported that the company often “rushes” production processes (Illustrative image)
Speaking with Information, several current and former Tesla employees stated that the company frequently accelerates construction, maintenance, and operational phases in ways that put workers at risk.
Witnesses reported that heavy machinery, including cranes, steel beams, and air conditioning ducts, fell near workers on the automotive production line. Records reviewed by Information indicated that workers at the factory also became ill after being exposed to toxic substances such as ammonia.
Last summer, an employee’s ankle was trapped under a push vehicle, causing them to miss over four months of work. A few days later, another worker was struck on the head by a metal object, requiring them to take 85 days off, according to Information.
Tesla’s Giga Texas factory.
According to Information, around early 2023, another incident occurred at the factory when water accidentally flooded molten aluminum used in the casting area that produces the Tesla Model Y chassis, leading to an explosion that witnesses described as sounding like a “sonic boom.” Reports indicate that the explosion created a fireball that sent smoke rising into the air, causing employees to flee in panic. However, it is unclear how many people were injured as this information was not included in the documents submitted to safety inspectors in Texas.
