This man was 25-years-old when he became the first person in the world to be killed by a robot – and it didn’t take long for a second death to occur in similar circumstances
08:00, 07 Nov 2025Updated 08:12, 07 Nov 2025
The victim’s family received a $10 million payout (Image: HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Robert Williams was just 25 when he made history in a tragic way – becoming the first person in the world to be killed by a robot.
He was employed at the Ford Motor Company casting plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, and on January 25, 1979, he met his untimely end while working with a parts-retrieval system.
The machine, designed to transport castings and other materials around the factory, seemed to be malfunctioning that day, operating at a slower pace than usual. Taking matters into his own hands, Williams climbed into the third story of a shelving unit, where he was “struck from behind and crushed” by a mechanical arm, according to legal documents.
It appears the robotic system failed to recognise Williams as a human being, instead identifying him as an object that needed to be moved instantly. Shockingly, reports indicate the machine continued its operations for a full half-hour as Williams lay lifeless before his coworkers discovered the horrifying scene.
In 1983, Williams’ family successfully sued the manufacturer of the machine, Litton Industries, arguing that the safety measures surrounding the robotic arm were inadequate given its powerful force. As compensation, they were awarded $10 million, which at the time was the largest personal injury award in state history.
At the time of the case, their lawyer said: ”I think we have to be very careful that we don’t go backward to the kind of notions we had during the Industrial Revolution that people are expendable.”
The Ford Motor Company were sued for millions(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
He further explained that using its powerful hydraulic arm, the robot completely crushed the worker into a functioning machine. The force instantly killed him before the robot resumed its tasks as if nothing had happened.
It did not take much time before a second death as a result of a robot took place in Japan, two years after the first incident. A 37-year-old worker, Kenji Urada, employed at the Kawasaki Heavy Industries plant in Akashi, died at the hands of a mechanical arm as he was checking a robot that was malfunctioning.
It’s believed he accidentally turned the robot on after he had jumped over a chain-fence safety barrier in the factory. His horrific final moments were detailed in the book When Robots Kill: Artificial Intelligence Under Criminal Law by Gabriel Hallevy.
It says: “The robot erroneously identified the employee as a threat to its mission and calculated that the most efficient way to eliminate the threat was to push the worker into an adjacent machine.”
The writer further explained that by using its powerful hydraulic arm, the robot was able to completely smashed the worker into an operating machine. The sheer force killed him immediately before resuming its duties like nothing had happened.