An autonomous delivery robot got completely atomized by a locomotive after it decided to take a breather on a stretch of train tracks in Miami, in yet another example of how self-driving machines can struggle to navigate urban environments.
Footage of the incident, which took place January 15, shows the robot sitting motionless on the tracks, seemingly making no attempt to get out of the way as the unmistakable blare of the train horn gets louder and louder.
“Oh it’s gonna crush it!” the onlooker taking the video can be heard saying moments before the train, operated by Brightline, flattens the unfortunate bot into the tracks. Sparks can be seen flying from beneath the train before the video cuts off.
The onlooker, Guillermo Dapelo, told People that the delivery bot had been stuck on the tracks for around fifteen minutes before being struck, making the incident all the more puzzling. A nearby Uber Eats driver contacted the robot’s owner, Coco Robotics, “to let them know where it was standing,” Dapelo added, but evidently, the company wasn’t able to fix whatever was plaguing its frozen minion in time.
Coco vice president Carl Hansen blamed the mishap on a “rare hardware failure” and called it an “extremely rare occurrence.”
“Safety is always our top priority, which is why our robots operate at pedestrian speeds, yield to people, and are monitored in real time by human safety pilots,” Hansen told People in a statement. “Coco has been operating in Miami for over a year, traveling thousands of miles without major incidents, including crossing those same train tracks multiple times a day.”
A spokesperson for the company confirmed that the robot was not making a delivery at the time of the video.
Small as they are, delivery bots like Coco’s can cause their fair share of mayhem, like disrupting traffic. One was struck by a Waymo robotaxi after it stopped at the end of a crosswalk, forcing the self-driving cab to slam the brakes. Others have dinged parked cars or blown through crime scenes.
They’ve also had run-ins with pedestrians, making them a controversial presence with locals. One woman was flung to the ground by a delivery bot from Coco’s competitor Starship after it suddenly reversed into her, leaving her with back pain and a gash in her arm. Last year, another delivery bot sparked outrage after a man who uses a mobility scooter filmed the machine repeatedly brake checking him and cutting him off as he tried to move around it on a sidewalk.
To be fair to the tiny helpers, their larger self-driving car cousins have also had their fair share of trouble with trains. So many Teslas in Full Self-Driving mode have driven into the path of oncoming locomotives that it’s spurred an investigation into the automaker by federal regulators. And earlier this month, a passenger bailed out of their Waymo after the robotaxi inexplicably decided to drive along light rail tracks, like it was playing pretend at being a railcar.
The takeaway from all this is obvious: we’ve gotta start putting those old-school cowcatchers back on trains — because robots, for whatever reason, clearly have some suicidal impulse around train tracks.
More on robots: Elon Musk Says His Optimus Robot Is So Dope That People Will Forget Tesla Ever Made Cars