At the Tesla factory, a robot attacked an employee (6 photos)

Two Tesla factory workers in Texas witnessed a co-worker being attacked by a robot designed to move freshly cast aluminum car parts. The machine in question pinned the employee down and then dug its metal claws into his back and arm, leaving a “trail of blood.”





The injury report said the incident left the injured engineer with an "open wound" on his left arm.



Tesla is required by law to provide a report to the authorities in order to maintain favorable tax breaks.

Moreover, the document says that the engineer did not require sick leave.

However, lawyer Hannah Alexander, who represents workers at Tesla's gigafactory in Texas, said the company is downplaying the number of incidents.



So, according to her data, on September 28, 2021, a plant builder died.

“We had several workers who were injured and one fatality whose injuries or deaths are not reported in the reports that Tesla must provide to the county in order to receive tax breaks,” Alexander says.

The attack occurred in 2021



The victim was a contractor named Antelmo Ramirez. He died of heatstroke while helping build the Tesla Gigafactory, according to the Travis County Medical Examiner's report.

Last year, the Workers Defense Project, which Hanna represents, filed a complaint on behalf of plant workers with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), alleging they were given false safety certificates.

“Workers report that instead of training, they were simply sent PDFs or images of certificates via SMS or WhatsApp,” said Hannah.

Three years ago, California investigators discovered that Tesla management had failed to report 36 injuries, misclassifying them as “personal medical” cases.



Nearly one in 21 employees at Tesla's Texas plant were injured on the job in 2022, according to The Information.

According to sources who spoke with The Information, the rapid construction of the gigafactory led to safety violations and an increase in injuries.

The company's records include sprains, cuts and fractures, as well as illnesses caused by toxins such as ammonia.

One worker took 127 days off work after his ankle was hit by a moving trolley in August 2022. And the loader was hit in the head with a metal object, resulting in an injury that took 85 days to recover from.

According to eyewitnesses, when the bleeding engineer tried to free himself from the robot, another worker pressed the emergency stop button



The engineer's injuries required "zero" days off work to recover, Tesla said.

Freed from the robot, the victim fell into the scrap chute, leaving a trail of blood behind him.