Blood all over! Tesla robot rips engineer’s back with metal claws at Texas plant

Blood all over! Tesla robot rips engineer’s back with metal claws at Texas plant

A Tesla engineer faced a perilous encounter with a malfunctioning robot at the Giga Texas factory near Austin, resulting in a bloody incident witnessed by two co-workers.

The machine, designed to handle aluminum car parts, unexpectedly trapped the engineer who was programming software for other disabled Tesla robots nearby. It plunged its metal claws into the worker’s back and arm, leaving a distressing trail of blood across the factory floor.

While Tesla claimed the injured engineer didn’t require time off, an attorney representing Giga Texas contract workers suggested that the number of injuries was being underreported, including the death of a construction worker in September 2021 while building the factory.

The deceased contractor, Antelmo Ramírez, suffered fatal heat stroke during the construction of Tesla’s extensive Giga Texas factory. Concerns about safety certifications provided to workers and insufficient training emerged in a complaint filed by the Workers Defense Project with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Similar instances of underreporting injuries were discovered in Tesla’s past. California OSHA investigations revealed the omission of 36 injuries in government filings in 2018, a pattern consistent with prior findings by investigative journalism organizations.

Despite Tesla’s 2021 Annual Compliance Report acknowledging the robot attack on the engineer, it provided minimal detail, stating the cause as a ‘laceration, cut, open wound’ inflicted by a ‘robot,’ with the engineer allegedly not requiring any time off for recovery.

Further revelations described the traumatic experience faced by the bleeding engineer, who, while struggling to break free from the robot, fell into a scrap aluminum collection chute, leaving a trail of blood behind, as reported by The Information.

Tesla’s self-reported injury data showcased a higher rate of accidents and more severe injuries at Giga Texas compared to industry averages. The rapid construction of the facility and the company’s ambitious production schedules were cited as factors contributing to lax safety measures and increased injuries.

Despite benefiting from substantial tax breaks from Travis County and the Del Valle Independent School District, questions arose about Tesla’s compliance with reporting requirements for injuries and deaths related to construction workers, as mandated in their economic development incentive agreement.

The Giga Texas factory’s location in an ‘unincorporated’ area near Austin added to the complexity of reporting and oversight. Additionally, concerns about Texas’s construction industry’s high fatality rates underscored the challenges faced by workers, with the relocation of Tesla’s operations to Texas reportedly linked to dissatisfaction with California’s regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The factory’s vast size and Tesla’s decision to operate sections of it while still under construction potentially contributed to the elevated injury rates among workers. DailyMail.com sought comment from Tesla, which disbanded its US media relations team in October 2020.