Texas Tesla factory software engineer suffered serious injuries when an incident of him being attacked by a malfunctioning robot on the floor of the electric car maker’s factory in Austin was reported. In a shocking incident, at Tesla’s Giga Texas factory near Austin, a malfunctioning robot reportedly attacked an engineer and injured him.
Texas Tesla factory robot incident
As per witnesses, Tesla engineer injured by robot at Texas factory, which was designed to move aluminum car parts, pinned him and sank its metal claws into his back and arm, leaving a trail of blood along the floor. As per the injury report obtained by The Information of the Texas Tesla factory robot incident, it left an ‘open wound’ on victim’s left hand.
The Tesla engineer was programming software that controls robots whose job it is to cut car parts from freshly cast pieces of aluminum.
Tesla engineer injured by robot at Texas factory
As per witness, 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.
At the Texas Tesla factory robot incident the engineer suffered a “laceration, cut or open wound” on his left hand. The injury was apparently not severe enough to require the employee to take time off from work.
Tesla declined to comment.
Other injury reports at Tesla factory
Injury reports submitted to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration alleged that nearly one out of every 21 workers at the Giga Texas factory got hurt last year.
In the automotive industry, the median injury rate last year was one in every 30 workers.
As per several current and former Tesla workers employed at the factory the company regularly cut corners on construction, maintenance and operations in a manner that placed them at risk.
Safety issues at Tesla factory
As per sources the 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.
As per records reviewed the workers at the factory fell ill after they were exposed to toxins such as ammonia.
In the summer last year, an employee’s ankle was caught under a moving cart, forcing them to miss more than four months of work.
Days later, another worker was struck in the head by a metal object, forcing them to miss 85 days of work, according to the Information.
Tesla employees at the factory said they witnessed forklifts collide with workers on the assembly floor.
On or around the New Year’s 2023, water was accidentally submerged in molten aluminum used in the castings area that produces the underbody of Tesla’s Model Y — resulting in an explosion that witnesses reported sounded like a “sonic boom,” according to the Information.
The explosion sent a ball of fire and then smoke into the air and caused employees to run off in terror, according to the report.
However, it is unknown how many people were injured, since that information is not included in documents submitted to safety inspectors in Texas, the Information reported.
Musk’s aim for Tesla
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s company began construction on the factory in the summer of 2020. Musk has stated that he aims for the 10 million-square-foot facility to help produce 20 million cars annually by 2030.
Construction at the Texas facility is ongoing. By the time work is finished, Tesla aims to employ 60,000 people there.
Tesla has said it expects to spend up to $10 billion to complete construction of the plant.
