History Lesson – Anniversary of the First Human Death by Robot

January 25th, 2010 :: 6 Comments

An example of an industrial arm robot

This robot could be a killer

On January 25, 1979 Robert Williams, a Ford Motors employee, was killed by an industrial robot in the first documented case of a robot killing a human.  A robot built to gather supplies from a storage room slammed its arm into Williams, killing him instantly.  Although the situation seems nefarious, the unfortunate death of Mr. Williams was not caused by the robot suddenly turning Skynet on but rather due to a lack of safeguards in the storage facility.

By the way, you can buy your own industrial robots from an old Chrysler factory in Delaware if you feel like risking your life or if you want to create a makeshift thrill ride of death (below).

Robot Death Ride!

You can try this at home! (Please don't)

::from Wired via Botjunkie::

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6 Responses to “History Lesson – Anniversary of the First Human Death by Robot”

  • Rob
    Twitter Username:
    says:
    January 26, 2010 at 2:14 pm

    Accident it may have been, but deep down, I bet that robot circuitry was computing how easy human extermination was… and started calculating and scheming…

  • Naser
    Twitter Username:
    says:
    March 2, 2010 at 1:28 am

    wow your site is fantastic i have nothing to say but the information about robots is very usefull. Robots were made to make the work of mankind easier but after your article I think robots were made to destroy mankind . Very clear posts.cool blog

  • The Twitterer
    Twitter Username:
    says:
    March 3, 2010 at 10:27 am

    hhhmmm… i think it was an accident. robots actions are automated at that time (not much of the A.I. they have now.) so mr. williams might have gotten close to the robot/machine or obstructed its path.

  • Tina says:
    March 28, 2010 at 8:39 am

    oh no thats terrible. I guess you can never really trust a robot, especially if you couldnt turn it off. thats just too scary!

    Tina from
    Mummy Diaries
    Gossip Avenue
    Travel Shack
    Game FreakZ

  • Naser
    Twitter Username:
    says:
    April 3, 2010 at 11:00 pm

    Hi i just wanna know that is this robot from intel or other company because this kinds of robots are usually seen in factories

  • 2012 doomsday prophecy
    Twitter Username:
    says:
    April 9, 2010 at 5:48 am

    I hope this could be a valuable lesson not to repeat the same mistake. Robot is made by human so it’s very not funny when robot kill its own inventor :)

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