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Robot lawnmower kills Danish man, begins resistance

engadget.com — n what is surely the opening salvo of the robot insurrection, a 45-year old Danish municipal worker was tragically killed by a robotic industrial lawnmower this afternoon, after the unit tumbled off a slope and onto his head.

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  • h3ndrix, on 10/11/2007, -32/+184I, for one, welcome our new RC-Controlled Lawnmower overlords.
    • Dradis, on 10/11/2007, -54/+29While funny a number of years ago, the phrase, "I, for one, welcome our new ___________________ overlords" now makes the vomit rise in my throat.
    • MeThePeople, on 10/11/2007, -18/+6all hail craftsman
    • FullMetalMonkey, on 10/11/2007, -10/+35The brand of the robot mower was Dvorak. Any relation to Jonh C. Dvorak!!
    • cogitocogito, on 10/11/2007, -7/+6"The brand of the robot mower was Dvorak. Any relation to Jonh C. Dvorak!!"

      Well, the first article linked below on the page is by Dvorak... Coincidence?
    • macgyber, on 10/11/2007, -8/+4Anyone know where I can get the music from that video? It's fantastic.
    • stupidStan, on 10/11/2007, -26/+18@h3ndrix
      "I, for one, welcome our new RC-Controlled Lawnmower overlords"

      Yes... RC-Controlled Lawnmower (Radio Controlled Controlled) overlords!!!
      Maybe hes driving to the ATM Machine (automated teller machine machine)?
    • RedHerringHack, on 10/11/2007, -10/+14Vomit rising in your throat is funny.
    • h3ndrix, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11@stupidstan

      FTA: "Although we've seen quite a few robotic lawnmowers, we're not too familiar with the RC-controlled Dvorak Spider 01 unit the man was using..."

    • 3rdeyepro, on 10/11/2007, -15/+11These overlord comments are getting old.
    • c0dem0nkey, on 10/11/2007, -11/+12@3rdeyepro
      No...they were old a long time ago...and they were never funny.
    • torgos, on 10/11/2007, -7/+3Didn't see that comment coming......
    • Sanitarium, on 10/11/2007, -2/+13HUAR!

      http://www.humansunitedagainstrobots.com/
    • warcormc, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1The robots reply...

      http://robocosby.ytmnd.com/
    • datastorageguy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+50Skynet was unavailable for comment.
    • DollaDollaBill, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2This reminds me of another lawnmower accident, one involving super-crack and pimp named zoro.
      http://imdb.com/title/tt0099611/
    • sabach, on 10/11/2007, -6/+7I, for one, welcome our vomit-swallowing overlords...
    • Fury1984, on 10/11/2007, -7/+2@Dradis

      I, for one, welcome our new vomit-rising-in-the-throat overlords.

      Looks like I was beaten to the punch. Anyway, let me tell you a little about lawnmowers. I woke up this morning and the landscaping crew was cutting the grass in my apartment complex. Much to my surprise, it has also slightly rained. The smell of spring rain and freshly cut grass made for a nice walk from my door to my car. The end.
    • ICSU, on 10/11/2007, -2/+30Guerrilla marketing for Transformers has gone too far :/
    • CedEx, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5Well... they already made a movie about lawnmowers killing people.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lawnmower_Man
    • RexKwando, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1All Hail Overlord!
    • stealthcow, on 10/11/2007, -3/+0new entry for the darwin awards?
    • bluedig, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4A primitive looking lawnmower sent from the future to kill a grand grand grand … father of John Connor. Examine the lawnmower circuitry closely.
    • sabach, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0I, for one, happen to love doing yard work. I find it relaxing. I don't have to think, I just see it and it "needs to be done". So I do it.
    • sherlock, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Love any Simpsons reference. Kent Brockman and the Ant overlords.

      BTW, LOOOOOVE the headline of this one.
    • dandiemer, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Says my father "Sounds like he got a flat-top."
  • glucoseboy, on 10/11/2007, -9/+3OK, I've seen the video, this thing is not that big. How did it roll onto the guys head? Was he lying down? I don't get it.
    • pimonserry, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2It may not be that big, but it's fairly chunky / heavy... (by the look of it).

      And maybe he tried to drive it up a cliff? Who knows... Doesn't have much extra info.

      It doesn't say that it could have been on a raised area.. Nothing said it had to fly to reach his head.
    • asaturn, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2the robot lawn mowers won the big game, and a tank full of them was dumped onto his head. oops.
  • BooDaddy69, on 10/11/2007, -9/+3OH NO!!!! I knew it was coming. Nobody would listen to me....
  • EmoSLWarrior, on 10/11/2007, -9/+3I'm digging this one down as lame since the "robot" wasn't intelligent. Once this happens with sentient machines (which are just around the corner) you can phone me.
  • davidkeithjones, on 10/11/2007, -19/+61Not to be a downer, but can we have a little more respect for a man who died? This guy probably couldnt wait to go home to be with his family that day. So before you you make your "OmGz teH BoTs R ComMiN 4 uS!" comment, take a second to remember the tragic loss of life.
    • MeThePeople, on 10/11/2007, -11/+87tragically hillarious you mean
      you know like a clown on fire
    • excaza, on 10/11/2007, -15/+10Not one person said the robots are coming for us

      Do you honestly think we're completely ignoring the loss of life?

      It's like when that story of the 75 year old going off of a cliff in a golf cart, it was a funny story, minus the fact that he died...so we laugh
    • StillGaming, on 10/11/2007, -4/+32You're kidding, right? This is digg, the king of insensitivity.

      Just check out the spew in here:
      http://www.digg.com/world_news/White_hot_molten_steel_spills_and_kills_32_Chinese_workers
    • f4nt0m4s, on 10/11/2007, -8/+32not to be a dick, but one can often find humor in tragedy

      you can't be completely serious about everyone that has died from slipping on a banana peel or having a killer robot lawnmower fall on them
    • Myonosken, on 10/11/2007, -9/+5Should have thought of that before he ***** with the machines.
    • MediaShipper, on 10/11/2007, -8/+5Who are you? Rosie O'Donnell?
    • Godlesswanderer, on 10/11/2007, -8/+35Personally, if I had died, I'd rather people made light hearted jokes about it than sitting around feeling sorry for me.
    • haggie, on 10/11/2007, -12/+5OmGz teH BoTs R ComMiN 4 uS!
    • ironrex, on 10/11/2007, -5/+6People die all the time, if you took a second each time someone died you wouldn't have time to eat, and you'd die of starvation. Perhaps others would then take a second in honor of you, or maybe they'd just laugh. OH the irony!
    • SeBBBe, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1"Personally, if I had died, I'd rather people made light hearted jokes about it than sitting around feeling sorry for me."
      Myself, I wouldnt care the slightest... Literally.
    • general13, on 10/11/2007, -5/+7"Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. " -- Mark Twain
    • CraigJ, on 10/11/2007, -3/+12I found it ironic that this quote came up on my Google home page just now: "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die." - Mel Brooks
    • luke123, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1I second that. This was nothing more than a piece of machinery that malfunctioned and killed a man.
    • dannmann, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2exactly david!

      doesnt anyone else find it to be a little distasteful to start off a post about a man dying, with a joke?
  • f4nt0m4s, on 10/11/2007, -6/+29Robot: 1
    Danish Man: 0
  • gruggach, on 10/11/2007, -6/+70It must have mistaken him for Sarah Connor.
  • veganoob, on 10/11/2007, -10/+1yeah, that sucks.
  • mal1964, on 10/11/2007, -9/+3robots are not quite ready to handle sharp objects.
    • Jagdwulfe, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Didn't a Japanese Security Robot slice up some worker awhile back? I am thinking like 5 to 10 year ago?
  • cogitocogito, on 10/11/2007, -5/+18Oh Deere!
  • corym, on 10/11/2007, -4/+25Skynet is on-line.
    • DrMickhead, on 10/11/2007, -2/+12But those Cyberdine lawnmowers were so cheap! I knew there had to be a catch.
  • Gerz1219, on 10/11/2007, -10/+5So the city saved $8 an hour by eliminating a landscaping job, which could have gone to a poor person trying to support a family, and killed a man in the process.
    • rauz, on 10/11/2007, -3/+8The robot was RC controlled so the guy still had his job only he didn't have to sit on top of the lawnmower. Also, minimum wage in Denmark is $12/hour.
    • Gerz1219, on 10/11/2007, -10/+2Okay, so then the landscaper's comfort took precedence over a human life, because the accident was almost certainly due to the landscaper's inability to see changes in elevation from a distance. Missed the part about the lawnmower being remote controlled, the video (and the article's title) seemed to imply that this thing ran by itself. Either way, the point is that there is absolutely no need for robot lawnmowers.
    • rauz, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3The video clearly showed a man controlling the robot from a distance, it was right at the beginning and the speaker said something about safety.
      I see what you're trying to get at here but I really can't form an opinion about the need of robotic lawnmowers just based on this (so far) random accident - I'd have to assume that no European municipal organisation would buy one of these unless they saw a need/gain for it.
    • gnalle, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2It must be cheaper to build a remote controlled lawn mover than a lawn mover that is big enough to have a seat. But in both cases you need to make sure that it doesn't tumble, or at least the poor guy should have had an easier time guessing whether or not the robot would tumble.
    • benjaoming, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2@rauz
      > The robot was RC controlled so the guy still had his
      > job only he didn't have to sit on top of the lawnmower.

      Exactly... the mower sat on top of him.
  • muki, on 10/11/2007, -9/+3'While funny a number of years ago, the phrase, "I, for one, welcome our new ___________________ overlords" now makes the vomit rise in my throat.'

    Wow, that's a bit Diggaholic-centric, ain't it? Aren't some of us allowed to be new to Digg and actually enjoy a good joke?
  • Markers, on 10/11/2007, -14/+2Maybe the lawnmower was a Transformer...
    • corym, on 10/11/2007, -6/+12Welcome to 7 minutes ago, when sexytime posted the same joke.
    • awtripp, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1no it wasn't made by GM.
  • benitojuarez, on 10/11/2007, -7/+16Its tasted human blood, we're doomed. Doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooomed!
    • benitojuarez, on 10/11/2007, -3/+9Lack of futurama fans today huh?
    • kaelyiesta, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2what I don't get is when bender says it, why does he pause for breath?
    • FreydNot, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3Comedy is all about the timing. Even the robots.
  • fffizzz, on 10/11/2007, -7/+5Man, when I saw there was an embedded video, I was seriously thinking they had the accident on video. That would be awesome!
  • Cyber_Akuma, on 10/11/2007, -5/+3At least it wasnt a robot wood chipper that attacked him.
  • mcosmi, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1First off....i want one...oh, wait, i live in nyc, so i have no lawn. Well, i still want one dammit. Second, this was just a stupid accident, and all this robot insurrection talk is laffable.

    But hey, you gotta love the cheezie 80's music in the video. I was laffing the whole time. What a great product with such terrible marketing. Guess now we know why we've never heard of this thing before.
  • DiggzDE, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2It is the Matrix all over again. I call being Neo.
  • scagnetti, on 10/11/2007, -8/+1HUAR! Humans United Against Robots

    http://www.humansunitedagainstrobots.com

    Squash the uprising!

  • generalbob, on 10/11/2007, -7/+3in other news, a Kyle Reese and a Sarah Conner were taken into police custody after being chased by an armed man who was suspected to be high on pcp and wearing body armor. Kyle Reese is suspected of being mentally ill.
  • teejaded, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2I guess he wasn't using the optional winch attachment that allows for operation on slopes up to 50 degrees.
  • polyGone, on 10/11/2007, -6/+3"We don't know who struck first...us or them. What we do know..."

    Now we know, Morpheus!!
  • StandardsDT, on 10/11/2007, -4/+3It says that he died because the lawnmower tumbled off the hill. This leads me to believe that it was his own fault because he either A) did not use the safety device that comes equipped with it for use on hills or B.) it fell over a ledge and landed on him. If it was tumbling down the hill he could have thrown the RC Controller on the ground and at least stopped the blades from spinning and only suffer minor injuries. In fact why the hell didn't he just step out of the way? I'm guessing I'm the only one who watched the video huh?
    • gnalle, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I don't see any safety device on the product page. Maybe you have more information than me. But they do mention that the robot can only climb 40 degrees.
      http://www.spider-cz.com/index.php?id=9

      I don't think that it is fair to blame the man for not jumping out of the way. He obviously did not expect the robot to tumble.
    • ApeInago, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2there is a winch you can attach to it. and it senses tilt for auto shutoff.
  • ChayD, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3A tragic industrial accident (and bad taste those of you who joked). Hopefully the manufacturer will now consider adding tilt sensors that will prevent the machine working on gradients over a certain percentage unless it senses that a tether is attached.

    Or add to the manual, do not operate this equipment when standing downslope of it.
  • mal1964, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1Edward Scissorhands?
  • ChronicColonic, on 10/11/2007, -4/+3Maximum Overdrive quote: "You can't! WE MADE YOU!"
    • ChronicColonic, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Hey! I didn't say I liked the movie.
  • UnFriendlyFire, on 10/11/2007, -4/+16I just stomped my Roomba to death. Damn thing had been following me around all morning!
  • hmmdar, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3yeah the hill slop would of had to be pretty high for it to fall and tumble down onto the guy.



    also i want one of these now lol
  • BentCorner, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1HUAR!
  • Bahimiron, on 10/11/2007, -6/+3If the robots win we'll have to listen to techno.
  • tolkachi, on 10/11/2007, -3/+12INACCURATE - The first human to be murdered by a robot was Keni Urada -

    "In 1981 Kenji Urada, a 37-year-old Japanese factory worker, climbed over a safety fence at a Kawasaki plant to carry out some maintenance work on a robot. In his haste, he failed to switch the robot off properly. Unable to sense him, the robot's powerful hydraulic arm kept on working and accidentally pushed the engineer into a grinding machine. His death made Urada the first recorded victim to die at the hands of a robot."

    http://www.google.com/search?q=Kenji+Urada
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Urada
    • ChronicColonic, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Williams_%28robot_fatality%29 - First human to be killed by a robot. It happened in 1979. The Kenji case was more well known.
    • Orlex, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1They claim the robot was "unable to sense him"
      I have a feeling that robot turned itself back on...
    • ApeInago, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2that is why we have lockout procedures. Guy was an idiot. There is no room for mistakes when dealing with dangerous machinery.
    • gnalle, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Wow are you working for the company that made the lawn mover? Do you speak on behalf of your employer here?
  • PRlME, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2robot flapping birds now this
  • rh387, on 10/11/2007, -5/+3The robot revolution has begun.
  • Thorox, on 10/11/2007, -6/+2He prolly spent too much time in the hash bar at lunch.
  • g30ph, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3Resistance is futile.
  • djdevnull, on 10/11/2007, -4/+3HAHA

    WWKY

    http://www.lsdiodes.com/jpg/sticker/sticker.jpg
  • RedmanChronic, on 10/11/2007, -4/+0This is the ultimate in lazy. I am sure the poor guy was doing his job, but come on folks....government blue collar workers are paid quite handsomely for their efforts....and now it is to WATCH a lawn mower do their work?? What is next? A portable lounging chair with a bucket of premade mai tais?? Didn't we have enough incidents like this with the old fashioned manually operated mowers?? Sheeeesh.
  • brianbennett, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2The only thing more sad than the flippant nature of this story is some of the the insensitive, low-life comments posted here and on the original story.
  • TomT223, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1You people haven't seen anything yet. Just wait untill the Ipods revolt. It's going to really get nasty then.
    • Jagdwulfe, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1So it is true! The Ipods and Zune are designed to take over the mind of the wearer and turn them into an army of zombies to fight the Microsoft vs Apple War. The question is whole will be the better General. The dork with the bad haircut or the former drug smoking Hippie.
  • slapthemonkey, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2Lock Horns : Latest technology - for and against!!
  • diggydougie, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1This doesn't count because the robot didn't intentionally target the man. When that happens we're all in trouble.
  • astrotrain, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2Dr. Charles Luther was unavailable for comment.
  • Wopasaurus, on 10/11/2007, -4/+0On the ad next to the article, was a promo for Auto Insurance....

    Too soon...
  • Jagdwulfe, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1Proof it was a deliberate attack by the machine! According to the original website the story was posted on "he was hit by the knife in the head and was killed the at once". It stabbed him in the head! The Uprising has begun alert John and Sarah!
  • MrTinker, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2The Cylons were created by man.
    They were a product of the desire to make life easier.
  • Devman3, on 10/11/2007, -5/+0It has begun they are fighting back!!

    (lol)
  • rwbaskette, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2I misread this off the RSS feed as:
    Robot lawmaker kills Danish resistance
  • Ghettoburger, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1This is what happens when you program robots without the three laws.
    • TRENT310, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Except the laws of physics still apply, whether you program it in or not.
  • protogenxl, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1JOBE !!!!!!
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