A food delivery robot was destroyed in Florida after it was struck by a train when it stopped directly on active railway tracks, with footage of the incident quickly going viral online.
The collision occurred after the small autonomous robot, which is designed to travel along pavements to deliver meals, came to a halt on the tracks and failed to move out of the way before an oncoming train approached.
Video shared on social media shows the train hitting the robot at a high speed, leaving it completely demolished.
Robot fails to clear tracks before collision
Per Fox 13 Tampa Bay, Guillermo Dapelo, who recorded footage of the robot being hit by a train, said:
“I was walking my dogs around 8 pm, and that’s when I saw the food car standing on the train tracks. An Uber Eats delivery had called the company to let them know where it was standing, and within a matter of minutes, the train approached, and everything else is captured on the video.”
No injuries were reported as a result of the incident, and the train involved was able to continue after the impact. The robot, however, was completely destroyed, with debris scattered along the tracks.
In a statement (via News18), the robot’s manufacturer, Coco, said:
“We are aware of the incident in Miami where a Coco robot experienced a rare hardware failure while crossing railroad tracks. Safety is always our top priority, which is why our robots operate at pedestrian speeds, yield to people, and are monitored in real time by human safety pilots.”
The accident follows just days after a similar incident where a Waymo passenger fled a self-driving car after it got stuck on train tracks.
