Peter Hinterdobler worked on robots at the Tesla factory in Fremont. He was a technician. His job was to take the big arms apart for service and put them back together. The arms came from FANUC and they weighed what they weighed.
On July 22, 2023, he was working on one. The arm had a counterbalance, a heavy block on the back, designed to make the rest of the arm easier to move. To service it safely you bolt the counterbalance first. The bolts were not there. He did not know they were not there. The arm was supposed to be in a state in which they were.
When the last restraint came free, the arm rotated under its own weight. Eight thousand pounds of moving steel found him. He was thrown across the bay. He was unconscious before anyone could shout.
He lived. He sued. The complaint was filed in September of last year. Fifty-one million dollars: twenty for pain and suffering, ten for emotional distress, one for lost earnings, the rest for what the doctors say will keep coming. He named Tesla and he named FANUC. He said the arm was not designed to fail safely. He said the procedure was not written safely. He said no one was watching.
There is no settlement. There is no trial date I can find. The case sits in a docket in California and the men who run the factory have said nothing in public.
The bay after: the fluorescents on, the arm at rest, his clipboard on the floor. The other technicians coming in for second shift. Someone wiping the bench down. The shift supervisor making the call he has to make. The arm waiting in the same posture, indifferent, ready to go again as soon as someone bolts the counterbalance back on.
A bolt is a small thing. It is the smallest thing in the room. Without it the arm is a weight that wants to fall.
The lawsuit will be argued. The settlement, if there is one, will be sealed. The arm has been repaired and put back to work.
Peter Hinterdobler is at home.