# Robot grabs; crushes man **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 2, 2015, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030 "2015-07-02T08:31:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/1 "2015-07-02T08:31:17Z")
:eek: They’re here and they are ready. A scene out of the movie Terminator just happened for real. A robot killed a contractor at one of Volkswagen’s production plants in Germany, the automaker said. linky: [http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/robot-crushes-man-at-volkswagen-plant-in-germany/article1-1365055.aspx](http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/robot-crushes-man-at-volkswagen-plant-in-germany/article1-1365055.aspx) ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/2 "2015-07-02T08:49:54Z")
> [@](#): > > The incident received a lot of attention on the social media after UK journalist Sarah O’Connor, who has the same name as Terminator actor Sarah Connor, posted about the mishap on Twitter. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/3 "2015-07-02T12:10:14Z")
\>Robot grabs; crushes man ?SYNTAX ERROR INITIATING CRUSH SEQUENCE…COMPLETE READY. \>\_ ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/4 "2015-07-02T12:33:01Z")
But… Asimov’s first law. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/5 "2015-07-02T12:37:19Z")
Obviously, it had a defective positronic brain and the First Law did not imprint properly. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/6 "2015-07-02T12:42:17Z")
And so it began. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/7 "2015-07-02T13:41:16Z")
Not the first time. According to [this article](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/17/upshot/danger-robots-working.html), there have been 33 deaths caused by robots in the last thirty years. The article describes some of the incidents. Honestly, some are caused by human error, such as not making sure the machinery is turned off before entering the red zone. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/8 "2015-07-02T13:55:40Z")
Te red zone is for loading and unloading; the white zone is for disposal of meat puppets… ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/9 "2015-07-02T13:59:55Z")
Listen Betty, don’t start up with your white zone shit again. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/10 "2015-07-02T14:35:30Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Not the first time. According to [this article](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/17/upshot/danger-robots-working.html), there have been 33 deaths caused by robots in the last thirty years. True, but this is the first time the robot was saying “Exterminate! Exterminate!” during the killing. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/11 "2015-07-02T17:13:45Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > Te red zone is for loading and unloading; the white zone is for disposal of meat puppets… ok- now I can’t stop laughing. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/12 "2015-07-02T17:27:04Z")
Was it a Hyperdyne Systems 120-A2? Well, that explains it then. The A2s always were a bit twitchy. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/13 "2015-07-02T18:10:34Z")
And now that it has tasted human blood, Stephen King’s “The Mangler” has been reclassfied as a documentary. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/14 "2015-07-02T18:57:46Z")
I once took a tour of a large postal facility. The guide pointed out a robot cart that transported mail from one section to another, without a driver. “And it’s perfectly safe, because it’s programmed to stop when it senses anything in front of it. See?” And he stood there as the cart came closer, and closer, and closer… Finally, he decided to quit playing chicken with it and leaped out of the way. It never stopped. I always think of that when I hear how much safer driverless cars are going to be. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/15 "2015-07-02T19:48:39Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > I once took a tour of a large postal facility. The guide pointed out a robot cart that transported mail from one section to another, without a driver. “And it’s perfectly safe, because it’s programmed to stop when it senses anything in front of it. See?” And he stood there as the cart came closer, and closer, and closer… > > Finally, he decided to quit playing chicken with it and leaped out of the way. It never stopped. > > I always think of that when I hear how much safer driverless cars are going to be. I worked at a defense contractor that had an automated cart for delivering the mail, called _Norman_\* I know that it stopped when something got in front of it, because I saw it happen. Good to see we were ahead of the post office in that regard. Almost fifteen years later I was back at that company, now in a different location. They’d moved over a lot of their things, including the pictures from the walls, and – I was surprised to learn – Norman. He didn’t run anymore (he required a special magnetized track that had been laid down under the carpeting, in order to know where to go, and they didn’t have it at the new facility), but it was kinda nice to see that he was still there. \*It was a Mailer named Norman. So you couldn’t help but get the joke, Norman sported a large photo of Norman Mailer on the front, as if the writer had been reincarnated as a big boxy workhorse of a robot. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/16 "2015-07-02T19:52:12Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Obviously, it had a defective positronic brain and the First Law did not imprint properly. Susan Calvin can fix it! All those German robots will be calling her Mommy! ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/17 "2015-07-02T19:53:41Z")
I figured if anybody would be the first to get whacked, it would’ve been Dr. Smith. That guy really pushed his luck. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/18 "2015-07-02T20:15:18Z")
Has **Robot Arm** got an alibi? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/19 "2015-07-02T20:20:04Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > I once took a tour of a large postal facility. The guide pointed out a robot cart that transported mail from one section to another, without a driver. “And it’s perfectly safe, because it’s programmed to stop when it senses anything in front of it. See?” And he stood there as the cart came closer, and closer, and closer… > > Finally, he decided to quit playing chicken with it and leaped out of the way. It never stopped. > > I always think of that when I hear how much safer driverless cars are going to be. Neither rain nor sleet nor morons blocking my way… ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030/20 "2015-07-02T22:57:40Z")
“Like everything else in life, crushing is just a primitive, degenerate form of bending” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-grabs-crushes-man/724030.md?page=2)