The Gist:
- An incident report displays an engineer at Tesla’s Texas-based headquarters was allegedly attacked in 2021 by a malfunctioning KUKA robotic arm.
- The robotic, which was designed to be extremely efficient ample to cut by way of aluminum to make automotive parts, pinned the engineer in opposition to the wall, resulting in blood being drawn from every his once more and arm.
- Tesla’s Giga Texas manufacturing unit is dwelling to an harm value of 1-in-21 workers in 2022, an alarming value that is lots better than the enterprise commonplace of 1-in-30 workers.
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Modern off the heels of 1 different spherical of controversy for his help of antisemitic rhetoric on X (beforehand Twitter), Elon Musk is as quickly as further making headlines and receiving scorn from most of the people after tales surfaced that a rogue robotic in Tesla’s Texas-based headquarters pinned an engineer in opposition to the wall with its claw, leaving a bloody path in its wake, per genuine reporting from The Information.
Tesla, recognized to underreport environmental info along with misrepresent — or solely depart off — worker accidents in its workplace tales, per the Los Angeles Casesmoved its gigafactory headquarters to Texas in 2021. The company has since been dwelling to fairly a couple of accidents and workplace hazards due to an unquenchable thirst for faster manufacturing.
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Elon Musk’s Tesla robots: a primer.
Per ElectrekKUKA’s robotic arms and FANUC-brand robots are favorites amongst Tesla’s manufacturing traces. However it absolutely was a since-updated Day-after-day Mail report that used a picture of a completely completely different robotic might have led to confusion amongst readers and anger by Musk for most likely implying that it was a Tesla Bot or Optimus that triggered the assault.
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Tesla’s Texas gigafactory employs a army of robotic arms from KUKAamongst completely different producers, per further reporting from Electrek. It was a KUKA-brand robotic arm, designed to cut by way of aluminumresponsible for the assault upon the engineer, in keeping with the New York Submit.
Musk and his throngs of followers immediately went on the defensive, slamming the media and claiming the Day-after-day Mail report misrepresented the character of the incident.
Per Reside ScienceMusk has ramped up the hype machine for the Optimus Gen-2 humanoid robotic. Any detrimental press linking any Tesla robotics to accidents and fatalities threatens to sabotage its profitability.
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Elon Musk’s Tesla robotic allegedly attacked an employee.
In 2021, an employee of Tesla was allegedly attacked by a robotic, nonetheless, the incident report did not flooring until December 2023.
Although two of the three robots the Tesla engineer was engaged on on the time had been disabled, the wrongdoer throughout the assault was mistakenly left on, per Sky Data. The engineer fell down a scrap metal chute after managing to interrupt free from the robotic’s claws, “leaving a path of blood behind him,” in keeping with witnesses.
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Tesla has a serious historic previous of worker accidents.
The Information reported that many earlier and present Tesla manufacturing unit workers claimed that Tesla habitually engaged in unsafe practices that positioned employees in peril.
The New York Submit reported manufacturing line workers have been victimized by heavy gear falling upon them along with workers turning into sick after publicity to ammonia.
Moreover in keeping with the New York Submita molten aluminum explosion in January 2023 left workers with an unknown number of accidents as a consequence of Tesla’s failing to submit the requisite information to safety inspectors.
Further reporting from the Associated Press revealed a China-based Tesla manufacturing unit worker was crushed to demise in February 2023, the small print of which Tesla sought to suppress.
Furthermore, Enterprise Insider confirmed three dozen accidents went unreported to California authorities, as Tesla made unsubstantiated claims that regulators praised their record-keeping and harm reporting practices.