Machine Vs Machine: An Autonomous Tesla Model S Runs Over A Humanoid Robot

Dhir Acharya - Jan 11, 2019

A humanoid robot supposed to be displayed at CES was standing in the way of a Tesla Modle S and got run over.

As robotics is getting more and more integrated into our lives, it looks like the world may get weirder and weirder too. How weird you ask? Enough to see a Tesla Model S run over a humanoid robot when operating in autonomous mode.

The victim in this strange crime is a Promobot’s humanoid model v4, which costs $2,000 for rent per day. The poor robot was separated from a group of robots, and no one knows how it got to the roadway leading to the parking lot.

On Sunday night, when a Tesla Model S, in its autonomous mode, was running on Paradise Rd, it knocked down the Promobot’s humanoid which was standing on the side of the road. After crashing the robot, the car kept driving for 50 meters more before it finally stopped.

The passenger sitting in the Tesla at that time, George Caldera, said she thought the car would come around the robot, but it did not. Regarding the damage, Promobot said the robot fell on its side and is suffering from serious damage. According to the company, the damage can hardly be fixed since several part of the robot’s body were destroyed, including head, body, arm, mechanism, as well as movement platform.

The humanoid robot was flown all the way from Philadelphia and supposed to participate in CES 2019. Now, after the accident, the company cannot exhibit it anymore.

Nevertheless, Promobot will work to find out how it split itself from the group and got to the roadway. The company will internally investigate into this.

Set aside all the troubles, this kind of events is exactly what we look forward to at the biggest gathering of technological innovations from around the world. The 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2019) started on January 8 and will end on January 11 in Las Vegas, you can follow this event to catch up with the latest techs out there.