Man Sues After Vicious Robot Attack, Wins Paltry $3,000

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Though the judgment in favor of a man who sued after being attacked by a robot is clearly a commentary on the inexcusability of machine-on-man violence, I think it's a good case for robot insurance.

In 2007, a muscular robot programmed to lift heavy stones malfunctioned in a factory near Stockholm, Sweden, and some poor devil—who thought he'd turned off the power—nearly got himself killed when the robot grabbed his head and shook him around. He ended up with four broken ribs, but managed to "defend himself" and live. The judge awarded the guy 25,000 Swedish kronor, which sounds nice except that it's only about $3,000. The judge also reprimanded the guy for being at least partially at fault, if I'm reading the Swedish translation correctly.

My point is, if the guy had only had Old Glory robot insurance, he'd have gotten way more than $3K, and probably wouldn't have gotten that reprimand either, because we know how Old Glory feels about robots. (Sorry in advance to people outside NBC.com boundaries—the video below is damn funny.) [SvD via io9]

Advertisement