Robot fatalities on record
32 distinct fatal events on the verified DEPLOY record as of 2026-09-05: 0 driverless with no human aboard, 1 in autonomous mode with a safety operator aboard, 3 driver-assist with a human driving, and 16 industrial or surgical. Each row is one distinct event, deduped and sourced. We count events, not headlines.
This is the deduped companion to the answer page how many people have robots killed. Counts render from the verified DEPLOY incident record. How we verify.
The record
Every distinct active fatal event on the DEPLOY record, most recent first. The autonomy-class column is the load-bearing distinction: a car driving itself with no human aboard is not the same event as a human driving with assistance engaged. Each record link carries the event's sources.
| Provenance | Source | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-28 | Cybercab | Tesla | Orlando, Florida, USA | Not yet classified | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2026-06-29 | Tesla Optimus | Tesla | Orlando, Florida, USA | Not yet classified | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2026-06-28 | Semi | Tesla | Orlando, Florida, USA | Driver-assist (human driving) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2026-06-19 | Tesla Optimus | Tesla | Orlando, Florida, USA | Driver-assist (human driving) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2026-06-19 | Tesla Optimus | Tesla | Orlando, Florida, USA | Not yet classified | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2026-06-16 | Capital Factory founder Joshua Baer killed in plane crash near Laredo, Texas | Capital Factory | — | Not yet classified | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2025-12-20 | da Vinci (and Ion) | Intuitive Surgical | Hong Kong, China | Not yet classified | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2025-09-14 | Waymo Driver (6th gen) | Waymo | Sacramento, California, USA | Not yet classified | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2025-01-18 | Waymo Driver (6th gen) | Waymo | Sacramento, California, USA | Not yet classified | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2024-12-02 | OSHA: 18-year-old machine operator killed by robotic arm during sensor maintenance (2024) | — | — | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2024-02-22 | OSHA: Worker crushed to death by robotic arm inside conveyor cage at Markman Peat Corp (2024) | — | — | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2023-11-28 | Tesla Optimus | Tesla | Orlando, Florida, USA | Driver-assist (human driving) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2023-11-10 | Epione | Quantum Surgical | Leeds, UK | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2023-03-31 | Hirschbach Autonomous Freight Operations | Hirschbach Motor Lines | Dallas→Laredo, Texas, USA | Not yet classified | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2022-09-01 | OSHA: Worker fatally crushed by spot-welding robot during maintenance at Unipres Southeast (2022) | — | — | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2021-01-14 | OSHA: Worker crushed and killed by Okura robotic palletizer arm at Ambrose Sales (2021) | — | — | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2020-01-04 | Wing Loong II | CAIG | Riyadh | Not yet classified | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2018-11-28 | ChemChina subsidiary Hebei Shenghua chemical plant explosion kills 24 in Hebei, China | China National Chemical Corporation | — | Not yet classified | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2018-10-13 | Velis Electro | Pipistrel | Dayton, Ohio, USA | Not yet classified | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2018-03-18 | Uber ATG Self-Driving Vehicle (Volvo XC90) | Uber ATG | United States (multiple hotel chains) | Autonomous mode, safety operator aboard | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2016-06-18 | OSHA: Temporary worker Regina Elsea crushed to death by assembly-line robot at Ajin USA auto-parts plant (2016) | — | — | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2015-11-30 | CISBOT | SPX Corporation | Port Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA (Elizabethtown Gas) | Not yet classified | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2013-03-07 | OSHA: Maintenance worker struck and killed by robotic drilling/tapping machine at Martinrea Hopkinsville (2013) | — | — | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2012-12-15 | OSHA: Worker struck from behind and killed by transfer robot inside work cell at Sodecia Sterling Heights (2012) | — | — | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2009-07-21 | OSHA: Worker crushed by robotic palletizer arms after entering active cell at Golden State Foods (2009) | — | — | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2007-05-13 | OSHA: Worker struck by robotic arm while troubleshooting injection-molding machine, later dies, at Lenco (2007) | — | — | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2006-07-24 | OSHA: Worker crushed between robotic arm and workstation frame at Alliance Tech Systems (2006) | — | — | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2004-03-30 | OSHA: Worker killed by industrial robot after entering barricaded work cell at Getrag (2004) | — | — | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2003-12-13 | OSHA: Heat-treat operator caught and killed by robotic lifting arm between oven and quench tank at Keihin IPT (2003) | — | — | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 2001-12-29 | OSHA: Worker asphyxiated after robot started up in un-locked-out cell at JR Wheel (2001) | — | — | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 1981-07-04 | Kawasaki RS020N | Kawasaki Robotics | Global | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
| 1979-01-25 | Robert Williams killed by industrial robot at Ford Michigan Casting Center — first known human fatality caused by a robot (1979) | Ford Motor Company | — | Industrial / surgical (non-mobility) | DEPLOY VERIFIED | Record → |
How we dedupe: distinct events, not headlines
One fatal crash can generate dozens of news reports. DEPLOY records the event once. Duplicate records of the same event are marked retracted or superseded and suppressed from this count, while staying reachable at their own URL so any correction still reaches readers. The number here is smaller than a headline tally because it is deduped and every row is individually verified.
Who was charged, and the evidence-tier fence
Charge status is carried on each event's record, not as a table column: in the autonomous-mode-with-operator case (Elaine Herzberg, Tempe 2018) the safety operator was criminally charged and pleaded guilty, and in the driver-assist road cases the human driver was charged. Separately, DEPLOY's 3 individually verified driver-assist fatalities are not the total number of driver-assist-involved deaths in the United States. NHTSA's Standing General Order aggregates manufacturer-reported crashes into the hundreds, cited at a reported tier alongside our verified count, never merged into it. Our number is smaller because every row in it is individually verified. NHTSA Standing General Order crash reporting.
Download the dataset
Every reviewed, non-retracted fatal event above, with its date, operational autonomy class, linked system / operator / place, and its DEPLOY record URL. The same dataset behind the flagship answer page. Retracted duplicates are excluded. 32 records.
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Related verified answers
Browse the registryRobotaxisHumanoidsAll verified answers
Every event on this page is a reviewed, individually sourced incident record; retracted duplicates are suppressed from the count but stay reachable at their own URL. Operational autonomy classes are drawn from each incident's verified classification. Verified incident counts; complaints and unfiled reports are tracked separately. How we verify
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