"Headlines rang out across the internet yesterday that a robot killed someone in Germany. Beneath the sensationalist surface, there was a tragic truth: an industrial robot at a Volkswagen plant in Germany had indeed killed a 22-year-old worker who was setting it up. Coverage notwithstanding, this didn’t seem like the start of a machine-led apocalypse--I wanted a second opinion before heading to my backyard bunker. Ryan Calo is a law professor at the University of Washington, and he’s published academic works on our coming robot future, and the interaction between robots and cyberlaw.
I sent Calo some questions by email, and below have paired them with his responses. I’ve also added links, where appropriate.
Popular Science: Yesterday Twitter was all abuzz about an industrial robot killing someone. You said at the time "this is relatively common." What did you mean by that?
Ryan Calo: In the United States alone, about one person per year is killed by an industrial robot. The Department of Labor keeps a log of such events with titles like "Employee Is Killed When Crushed By Robot" (2006) or "Employee Was Killed By Industrial Robots" (2004)."
Read the full interview at Popular Science.