Man killed by robot inside Volkswagen plant

A Volkswagen employee.
(Image credit: John MacDougall/Getty Images)

A man was killed by a robot earlier this week at one of Volkswagen's German production plants.

The 22-year-old died Monday at the Baunatel plant about 62 miles north of Frankfurt, Volkswagen spokesman Heiko Hillwig said. The man was setting up the stationary robot with another team member when it grabbed and crushed him against a metal plate. Hillwig said the initial investigation points to human error as opposed to a problem with the robot, which is programmed to do different production tasks. The robot ordinarily operated in an area of the plant where it grabbed auto parts and manipulated them, The Associated Press reports.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.