{"id":"5ffcfb24-4d5c-49c7-94ee-8840b8aea17f","slug":"kiwibot-uc-berkeley-battery-fire-2018-12-14","kind":"property_damage","headline":"Kiwibot delivery robot catches fire on UC Berkeley campus; company pulls fleet","summary":"On Friday 14 December 2018 a battery in an idling Kiwi delivery robot on the UC Berkeley campus began smouldering and caught fire. A bystander used a fire extinguisher and the Berkeley Fire Department sprayed foam to prevent reignition; no injuries were reported. Kiwi said its investigation found the root cause was human error during battery replacement, when a defective battery was installed, leading to thermal runaway (company-stated). Outcome: Kiwi pulled all robots from service during the investigation, switched to hand delivery, and said it was adding battery-monitoring software and a new battery review process.","occurredAt":"2018-12-14T00:00:00.000Z","reviewStatus":"reviewed","modelId":"2d1c5596-b3f0-491b-9cbc-b822584584f6","deploymentId":null,"companyId":null,"dataCenterId":null,"aliases":[],"collisionRisk":"none","reviewNote":null,"severity":null,"rootCauseCategory":null,"rootCauseDetail":null,"affectedUnitsCount":null,"affectedUnitsBasis":null,"remediationStatus":null,"regulatoryAction":null,"regulatoryBody":null,"propertyDamageEstimateUsd":null,"damageEstimateBasis":null,"bodilyInjurySeverity":null,"fatalityCount":null,"lossCostClass":null,"sourceQualityTier":null,"oshaRecordable":null,"oshaCaseNumber":null,"rootCauseDisclosed":null,"publicDisclosureDate":null,"insuranceClaimPublic":null,"formFactor":null,"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"autonomyClass":null,"legalOutcomeClass":"unknown","createdAt":"2026-10-26T19:49:46.111Z","updatedAt":"2026-11-01T16:31:18.644Z","model":{"id":"2d1c5596-b3f0-491b-9cbc-b822584584f6","companyId":"1be6da76-d43a-4468-b768-9c18837bcbb4","modelName":"Kiwibot Delivery Robot","slug":"kiwibot-delivery-robot","description":"Autonomous sidewalk delivery robot for campus food delivery, deployed at 30+ universities across the US.","formFactor":"sidewalk","industryVertical":"logistics","environment":"sidewalk","maturityStage":"commercial","lifecycleState":"active","supersededByModelId":null,"specs":{},"manufacturerSerial":null,"reviewStatus":"reviewed","sources":[{"url":"https://www.kiwibot.com/","title":"Kiwibot","sourceName":"Kiwibot"},{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwi_Campus","title":"Kiwi Campus","sourceName":"Wikipedia"},{"url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60763612","title":"Kiwi Campus","sourceName":"Wikidata"}],"aliases":[],"collisionRisk":"low","reviewNote":null,"manufacturerTermForTeleop":null,"keyFacts":[{"label":"Robots (company-claimed)","value":"Autonomous sidewalk delivery robots for food and cargo, plus advertising units."},{"label":"Deployments (reported, unconfirmed)","value":"30+ university campuses."},{"label":"Sodexo partnership (reported, unconfirmed)","value":"Plan for 1,000+ robots across 50 college campuses."},{"label":"Deliveries (company-claimed)","value":"150,000+ deliveries completed."},{"label":"Later name (reported, unconfirmed)","value":"The company later operated as Robot."}],"createdAt":"2026-07-02T23:23:26.844Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-12T22:04:07.387Z","unitsInFieldClaimed":null,"unitsInFieldVerified":null,"unitsManufacturedClaimed":null,"unitsManufacturedVerified":null,"unitsAsOf":null,"unitsSource":null,"salesModel":null,"priceUndisclosedSince":null,"autonomyClass":null,"autonomyStatement":null,"autonomyStatementSource":null,"demoForensics":null,"exportControlClass":null,"minCommitment":null,"warrantyTerms":null,"serviceModel":null,"productionRateClaimed":null,"productionRateEvidenced":null,"teleopRatioDisclosed":null,"interventionRateDisclosed":null},"deployment":null,"company":null,"derived":{"status":"active"},"sources":[{"id":"f16c7565-a059-4ba6-86c5-0b2953e767ce","incidentId":"5ffcfb24-4d5c-49c7-94ee-8840b8aea17f","url":"https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/17/kiwi-blames-human-error-after-delivery-robot-catches-fire","label":"Kiwi blames 'human error' after delivery robot catches fire","publishedAt":"2018-12-17T00:00:00.000Z","notes":null,"title":"Kiwi blames 'human error' after delivery robot catches fire","sourceName":"TechCrunch","mediaType":"article","videoId":null,"channel":null,"durationSec":null,"timestampSec":null,"createdAt":"2026-10-26T19:49:46.941Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-26T19:49:46.941Z"},{"id":"f50c9db7-aebc-4620-a072-fb5dbcf561d1","incidentId":"5ffcfb24-4d5c-49c7-94ee-8840b8aea17f","url":"https://www.theregister.com/2018/12/17/robot_university_fire/","label":"Robot delivery bot fire at university","publishedAt":"2018-12-17T00:00:00.000Z","notes":null,"title":"Robot delivery bot fire at university","sourceName":"The Register","mediaType":"article","videoId":null,"channel":null,"durationSec":null,"timestampSec":null,"createdAt":"2026-10-26T19:49:47.678Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-26T19:49:47.678Z"}],"responses":[{"id":"8fcb68fa-9f65-4843-ac47-58357f094534","incidentId":"5ffcfb24-4d5c-49c7-94ee-8840b8aea17f","respondentName":"Kiwi (Kiwibot)","respondentRole":"operator","body":"\"We learned that the root cause was human error when replacing the batteries\": \"a defective battery was put in place of a functioning one. This caused an exceedingly rare occurrence of the battery experiencing thermal runaway.\"","respondedAt":"2018-12-17T00:00:00.000Z","provenance":{"tier":"reported","assertedBy":{"name":"Kiwi (Kiwibot)"},"reportedVia":{"url":"https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/17/kiwi-blames-human-error-after-delivery-robot-catches-fire","title":"Kiwi blames 'human error' after delivery robot catches fire","sourceName":"TechCrunch","publishedAt":"2018-12-17"}},"createdAt":"2026-10-26T19:49:48.447Z"}],"statusEvents":[],"jsonLd":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://registry.deploy.report/incidents/kiwibot-uc-berkeley-battery-fire-2018-12-14","url":"https://registry.deploy.report/incidents/kiwibot-uc-berkeley-battery-fire-2018-12-14","headline":"Kiwibot delivery robot catches fire on UC Berkeley campus; company pulls fleet","description":"On Friday 14 December 2018 a battery in an idling Kiwi delivery robot on the UC Berkeley campus began smouldering and caught fire. A bystander used a fire extinguisher and the Berkeley Fire Department sprayed foam to prevent reignition; no injuries were reported. Kiwi said its investigation found the root cause was human error during battery replacement, when a defective battery was installed, leading to thermal runaway (company-stated). Outcome: Kiwi pulled all robots from service during the investigation, switched to hand delivery, and said it was adding battery-monitoring software and a new battery review process.","identifier":"5ffcfb24-4d5c-49c7-94ee-8840b8aea17f","datePublished":"2018-12-14T00:00:00.000Z","articleSection":"property damage","publisher":{"@id":"https://deploy.report/#organization"},"author":{"@id":"https://deploy.report/#organization"}},"framework_metadata":{"framework_schema_version":"0.1.0","verification_status":"verified","maturity_stage":null,"lifecycle_state":null,"architectural_position":{"cohort":null,"sub_cohorts":[]},"within_cohort_verified_vs_claimed_pair":null,"cap_flags":[],"verification_depth":{"sources_count":2,"primary_source_types":["secondary-industry-publication"]}}}