The development of robotics and automation is undoubtedly necessary for the transition of humanity to a new technological level. But, as in any other high-tech area, there are risks here. And the stake in these risks may be the highest - your life. We were convinced of this on the example of the recent incident with an unmanned vehicle Uber, in which a pedestrian was killed. The problem is aggravated by the fact that the current level of AI development does not allow soulless machines to quickly and adequately determine the level of danger, and, consequently, to understand whether there is a person in front of it or a material with which the robot was programmed to work.
An example of the tragedy that resulted in the death of a woman under the wheels of an Uber drone is far from the only one. For self-driving cars - one but not for a production environment where people have to work side by side with dangerous machines every day. In critical situations, when cold steel collides with living flesh, the latter always loses.
Today we will talk about ten cases of death of people from the "hands" of robots. Some examples contain very unpleasant details, so before you start reading this, we advise you to remove children from the screen. The same, if you are a rather suspicious person - it is better to close this page and save your nerves. We warned!
Joshua Brown
Joshua Brown became the first person to die in a self-driving car accident. The tragedy happened on May 7, 2016, when the Tesla Model S electric car, equipped with an unmanned control system, moving along the road of the American town of Williston, could not determine what was in front of it - a clear sky or an 18-wheeled cargo truck turning right. Brown's car flew under the central part of the tractor like a knife in butter and a moment later exited from the other side. The car with the roof cut off flew off the road, flew over two fences, and then crashed into a post.
After an internal investigation, Tesla stated that no bugs were found in the car's software, and immediately tried to shield itself from any accusation in the accident. At the same time, the incident was publicly announced only on June 30, that is, in fact, a month after the accident. The published report said that Model S cars have traveled more than 210 million kilometers and so far there has not been a single fatal accident, when for ordinary cars the average figure is 150 million kilometers. The company also pointed out that the autopilot system of its cars at the time of the accident was not perfect (complete), and therefore the rules clearly required the driver to have constant attention and hands on the steering wheel. During that 37-minute ride, Brown took his hands off the wheel for only 25 seconds. They turned out to be the last for him in his life.
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An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that neither Brown nor the autopilot system activated the vehicle's braking system prior to the collision. The electric car's airbags did not deploy until the car flew off the road and drove through bushes located on a private plot. Medical experts said Brown most likely died immediately after the vehicle was hit by a tractor.
The truck driver stated that Brown was watching the Harry Potter movie at the time of the accident. The NTSB test did show a microSD card with a Harry Potter movie, but couldn't tell if Brown was actually distracted by watching the movie on Asus laptops or Chromebooks also found in the car.
Robert Williams
Robert Williams became the first person in history to be killed by a robot. The incident occurred at the Ford factory in Flat Rock, Michigan on January 25, 1979. Williams was killed by a 1-ton robotic arm that struck him while trying to retrieve a new fabricated part on his own.
The task of the robotic arm was to transfer new parts from one place to another. However, the accumulated errors in the software, indicating incorrect information about the number of parts that were at that moment on the rack, forced Williams to climb the stairs on his own and get the part he needed. At that moment, the car killed him. The investigation showed that the cause of the death of the person was a very weak safety technique at the enterprise, including the absence of warning sound signals that would indicate a dangerous human presence. The company paid the family of the deceased $ 10 million.
Nine South African soldiers
An incident in 2007 killed nine South African soldiers and injured another 14. This time, the air defense installation malfunctioned, which opened uncontrolled fire in all directions. The killer was the automatic computerized anti-aircraft gun Oerlikon GDF-005. It was controlled by a system designed to automatically search, capture and attack the enemy without human intervention. The gun even had a self-reloading system, which in our case could make it even more deadly.
The soldiers were training at one of the bases of the North Cape province of South Africa, when the anti-aircraft gun first jammed, then, according to eyewitnesses, something exploded in it, and then the anti-aircraft gun opened uncontrolled fire, firing two hundred and fifty 35-mm high-explosive guns from its two barrels. shells at people near him.
Among the alleged reasons for the "riot" of the anti-aircraft gun, both a software failure and mechanical failure were named. According to the comments of representatives of some companies involved in the production of weapons, such an incident was far from the only one, and they already had to deal with similar situations. It's just that this case was the first when people died in such an incident.
Mika Johnson
On July 7, 2016, a fatal shooting occurred in the American city of Dallas. Out of anger over the recent police killings of several black residents in waves in various US cities, Micah Johnson shot five police officers and injured nine more, two of whom were civilians. He killed the first three police officers at about 9 pm, during the then peaceful protests. After that, he tried to hide in a college in El Centro, where he killed another police officer at the entrance and took a wait position to kill several more police officers.
Over the next five hours, the police tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with Jones, but he did not want to give up and threatened to detonate several bombs. Ultimately, the police ran out of patience, and the officers offered Johnson two choices: either he gives up and goes outside with his hands up, or stays inside, in which case the police are ready to use force. The killer decided to choose the second option. Soon, the criminal realized what kind of power the police had in mind when they attached a block of C4 explosives to the robot's arm and sent it to the college's underground parking lot, where the killer was hiding. The machine, "sacrificing" itself, took Johnson to hell. This was the first time, at least in police practice, that a robot was used to eliminate a criminal. The irony is that the robot itself was intended for mine clearance. The police sometimes used robots to neutralize criminals before this incident. True, in such cases, as a rule, it was about flash and smoke grenades, so that the criminal could be taken alive. In addition, SWAT special forces are also trained to work with robots, which more often have to deal with terrorists. At the same time, American troops used similar tactics to combat insurgents during the Iraqi war. At the same time, American troops used similar tactics to combat insurgents during the Iraqi war. At the same time, American troops used similar tactics to combat insurgents during the Iraqi war.
Kenji Urada
Kenji Urada became the second victim of a robot in history, as well as the first and far from the only victim killed by a robot in Japan. The incident occurred in 1981 at the Kawazaki Heavy Industries plant in Akashi, when Urada was repairing one of the robots. As it turned out later, the robot was not turned off at the right time, although it should have. A mechanical hand pushed the poor engineer into the crusher, where the man died. In fact, this is the first time that a machine has killed a person with the help of another machine. It was not possible to save the poor fellow - Kenji's colleagues who arrived at the scene of the tragedy simply did not know how to turn off the crusher.
After lengthy trials, the inspectors came to the conclusion that Urada did not forget to turn off the equipment - he still pressed the necessary toggle switch. However, after that, he himself accidentally hooked the toggle switch, thereby activating the device he had just turned off. Judging by the fact that Kenji was not stopped by the safety grill - which should be lowered automatically if the robot is in the ON mode - the toggle switch was turned on after Urada climbed through the fence. After the incident, the manufacturers drew certain conclusions and further strengthened the protective systems of the robots.
Unknown
The tragedy happened in 2015 at the Volkswagen plant in the German city of Baunatal. The unnamed 21-year-old was part of the team of engineers who designed and installed the robot. The machine killed its creator by breaking through the ribcage after grabbing it and hurling it against metal plates. The man died in the hospital from his injuries incompatible with life.
The media reported that a killer robot was to be used on an engine production line. As it should be for safety reasons, the robot was inside a protective cage. At the same time, there was also an engineer who was engaged in the installation and configuration of the machine. In a statement, Volkswagen suggested that the unit could move on a signal from another worker, who was at the time from the outside. Due to an error, the robot killed the unfortunate man.
Wanda Holbrook
In July 2015, 57-year-old Vanda Holbrooke, an employee of the Ventra Ionia Mains plant in Detroit, which produces auto parts (bumpers and truck trailers), was seriously unlucky. At the Holbrooke plant, she monitored line faults. Then no one could have thought that a tragic accident would suddenly cut off her life, and that the cause of her death would be a failure in the mechanism of the robot, which would crush Wanda's head with its "hands".
Typically, an assembly line in a factory is divided into several sections, each of which contains robots doing their part of the assembly and presumably unable to reach the other section. We say “presumably” because one robot somehow did it.
As it was written in the report of the commission investigating this tragedy, “the robot's hand suddenly grabbed Wanda, reaching out to the section where she worked. After that, hitting and crushing Wanda's head between the assembly couplings, she tried to place her head in a special clamp device”.
Wanda's workspace was 800 square feet, in which robots took truck bumpers and welded metal plates to them. The documents stated that she was working as if in a cage at the moment when the robot's hand entered her territory and pressed her head against the armature.
The incident was not noticed by other Ventra employees until some routine operations had ceased to function as usual. It was after this that they headed to the Wanda Holbrooke section and decided to find out what had happened. Holbrooke was found unconscious by colleagues and died 40 minutes after the accident.
The robot's hand was actually trying to set Wanda's head into a special clamp for the part, which in itself seemed extremely incredible, since the clamp cannot hold two parts at once - at the time of the incident, the part was already in the clamp.
The husband of the deceased filed lawsuits against five companies involved in the production of this robot.
Ana Maria Vital
In 2009, Ana Maria Vital, 40, was killed by a Golden State Foods palletizing robot at a plant in an industrial area of Los Angeles. The machine was used in the process of placing packaging (boxes) on a pallet (pallet).
At some point, one of the boxes got stuck inside the robot, and Maria entered its cage in order to restore the packing progress. Since the machine was turned on all this time (why do we need safety precautions?), The robot grabbed Ana Maria like one of the packages it was working with, and then simply crushed her body, despite the mechanics' attempts to free her.
Ramji Lal
In 2015, 24-year-old Ramji Lal, who worked as a metal loader, was stabbed to death by one of the robots at SKH Metals' plant in Mansa, India. The task of the robot was reduced to moving metal sheets welded together. One of these sheets turned out to be incorrectly positioned, and Ramji tried to correct it. True, he was not agile enough, and the robot's hand stabbed him with the sharp edge of the sheet in the stomach. It was also reported that he died from an electric shock.
In fact, Lal did not die immediately. Eyewitnesses of the incident called an ambulance, and the man was brought to the hospital, where he died 20-30 minutes later. An autopsy revealed that his ribs and abdomen had turned into a mess, and he died of extensive internal bleeding. At the same time, the pathologists did not find any signs of electric shock. However, the police apparently had their own opinion on this matter. The official report stated that the cause of death was a fatal electric shock.
Regina Elsa
In June 2016, two weeks before her own wedding, Regina Elsa was killed by a robot. She was only 20 years old. The accident happened at the Ajin USA factory, which produces parts for Hyundai and Kia cars.
On that fateful day, Elsa and her colleagues tried to fix a failed robot. In fact, they shouldn't have done this, but numerous calls to the repair department had no effect. There simply no one answered the phone. As a result, their decision to try to fix the robot on their own turned out to be fatal for one of the employees. The robot unexpectedly rebooted and pushed Elsa very hard into another car, causing horrific injuries. The factory employee was first taken to the East Alabama Medical Center and then by helicopter to the Birmingham Trauma Center. Unfortunately, the injuries were very serious, and the next morning the girl died.
The incident attracted increased attention from the authorities. It was found that the management of the Ajin USA factory, in an effort to increase profits, violated several security protocols at once. Just two weeks before the incident, the US Department of Labor filed a $ 2.7 million lawsuit against the enterprise for violating 27 different safety regulations. The audit also revealed that Ajin USA employees were overworking frequently. Sometimes management required them to work 7 days a week, seven days a week, and often urged them to repair broken robots on their own.
Nikolay Khizhnyak