The latest news, Tesla's factory was exposed to frequent industrial accidents!

Written by Ma Xiaolei

Edited by Tu Yanping

Design / Zhao Haoran

来源 / the verge，作者：Tom Randall

As Tesla prepares to deliver its first Cybertruck, a report reveals some "tragic" incidents in the process of manufacturing the pickup at the Texas factory, including an explosion at a casting machine and a robotic arm stabbing a worker.

According to Tesla's required work-related injury report filed with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). In 2022, one out of every 21 workers at the Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, was injured.

In 2021, an engineer had an accident while programming software to build a robot at the Austin factory. Two robots tasked with cutting car parts from freshly cast aluminum sheets have been cut off while engineers are working on them. There is also a robot that is responsible for grabbing and moving car parts that is turned on due to the negligence of the workers. According to two witnesses, when the robot was functioning normally, it pinned the engineer against the wall and stabbed its claws into his back and arms.

One of the witnesses said that after another worker pressed the emergency stop button, the engineer managed to break free from the robot's control, fell into a chute used to collect scrap aluminum, and slid down several meters, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

An injury report submitted by Tesla to Travis County, Texas, reportedly mentions a robot-related accident, but it does not quite match what witnesses described. The report did not state the engineer's absence from work because of a work-related injury. And in August 2022, a worker's ankle got stuck under a cart, causing him to be out of work for 127 days. A few days later, another worker suffered a head injury and was out of work for 85 days.

There are also a number of injury reports with updated dates. Around the New Year 2023, an explosion occurred in the metal casting area, and at least one worker suffered a concussion. Allegedly, the explosion was caused by water mixed into the molten aluminum press. An eyewitness who watched the surveillance video said the explosion ejected a cloud of fireball and smoke into the air, damaging the mold and rolling up a door that sealed the chamber. It is unclear whether Tesla reported the incident to OSHA, which is said to have not investigated the incident.

Another worker said the mold casting machine was also not properly sealed and often spit out molten metal. When a worker came up with a solution to the problem, he was also criticized, accusing him of reducing productivity by shutting down the machine.

In June of this year, a contractor fell to the ground due to a lack of protection while installing a metal grating for an elevated sidewalk at the factory. Some metal grilles pressed down on them, causing them to break bones and puncture their lungs. OSHA conducted an investigation into the incident and fined the contractor.

This is not the only crash, the media has also reported incidents of air conditioning pipes, steel beams, and other construction materials falling from the side of autoworkers.

Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, has also had workers injured. There is an above-average rate of employee injuries. Tesla has been fined for allegedly misreporting work-related accidents and failing to address safety hazards in tents outside the assembly line.

Tesla's Gigafactory in Austin, which employs more than 20,000 workers, first opened in April 2022. It was completed about two years after the start of construction was announced in 2020 and is currently expanding the production scale of the Cybertruck. Employees described the company's work culture as extremely harsh, with extremely long working hours, unsafe working conditions, and harassment.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has historically opposed employee unionization, so he chose to build a factory in Texas, which has a "right to work law." The Right to Work Act gives workers the right to choose whether or not to join a trade union, prohibits unions from forcing workers to go on strike, and non-union workers are exempt from paying union representation fees. In states with right-to-work laws, it is more difficult for unions to organize workers.

At the same time, a Reuters investigation also showed that Musk's rocket company SpaceX also has a large number of work-related accidents, including workers with crushed limbs, head injuries and even electric shocks.