How many people have been killed by robots?

The count

Across the 17 AI and robotics incidents this catalog has researched and sourced, 1062 people have been killed; at least 154 people have been injured.

Of the 17 documented incidents, 17 have a confirmed harm classification; 0 remain unclassified or unresolved pending review.

No government or industry body maintains a live count of this kind; this figure reflects only what this catalog has independently verified and sourced.

These counts reflect the incident's initial published reporting. This site's automated daily updates do not currently revise harm counts when later coverage changes them.

A harm classification records what this catalog's research determined and, for the earliest entries, what an editor hand-reviewed at backfill time - it is not an independent verification of the underlying claim.

Frequently asked

See the incidents

• Eastern Air Lines Flight 401: a single chime was the only warning the L-1011 was descending, and 101 people died - 101 people killed
• Robert Williams, 1979: the first person on record killed by a robot - 1 person killed
• Air New Zealand Flight 901: a silent waypoint change put 257 people on a track into Mount Erebus - 257 people killed
• A Kawasaki robot arm crushed Kenji Urada in 1981, and the world only heard about it five months later - 1 person killed
• An A320 autopilot flew a 3,300 ft/min descent into a French ridge, killing 87 - 87 people killed
• Automation logic withheld braking for nine seconds as Lufthansa Flight 2904 overran the runway at Warsaw - 2 people killed
• Crew fights the autopilot's go-around trim on approach to Nagoya; China Airlines Flight 140 stalls, killing 264 - 264 people killed
• One letter, two beacons: American Airlines Flight 965's rushed approach ends on a mountain near Cali - 159 people killed
• A blocked pitot tube fed false airspeed to a Boeing 757 autopilot, the crew never recovered from the stall that followed, and all 189 aboard Birgenair Flight 301 died - 189 people killed
• Uber test SUV killed a Tempe pedestrian after never classifying her as a person - 1 person killed

For the full, sourced list of documented fatalities, see who has been killed by robots.