Violence against robots

Humans have been observed performing violence against robots. Also referred to as anti-robot attacks and robot abuse.^{[citation needed]}

An image from CCTV of a 41-year-old drunk man shortly before attacking a Knightscope robot^[1]

Brščić et al. define robot abuse as "Persistent offensive action, either verbal or non-verbal, or physical violence that violates the robot's role or its human-like (or animal-like) nature".^{[2][not in body]}

Types

The types of attacks include ones that aim for the robots to stop working, ones that impair the robot's sensors to weaken its awareness of the environment, ones that attempt to cause humans to believe that the robot has felt some form of humiliation or weakened social status (e.g. defacement) and ones that verbally attack the robot. Another type of attack is causing the robots to be confused, with an example being to trick "a mobile food delivery robot to engage in dangerous traffic manoeuvres". Robots may also be hacked, causing them to perform unexpected actions.^[3]: 3 An attack against a robot may either be an act of vandalism against the organisation that owns it (an attack on property) or may be a committed against the robot as if it were an individual.^[3]: 4

History

Factory workers have caused damage to autonomous machines since at least the 19th century. The Luddites in England were a group of people who would organise such attacks.^[3]: 2

Examples

A widely publicised attack against the hitchhiker robot hitchBOT occurred in Philadelphia in 2015, where attackers stripped, dismembered, and decapitated the robot. Similar attacks have taken place against Knightscope K5 security robots.^[3]: 3 In December 2017, San Francisco's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals removed its Knightscape surveillance robot from the streets after nearby homeless people accused it of harassment, and reportedly "put a tarp over it, knocked it over and put barbecue sauce on all the sensors".^[4][5]

At least two dozen attacks on driverless cars occurred within two years in Chandler, Arizona, after Waymo began testing its vehicles in the city in 2017.^[6] People threw rocks at them, attempted to run them off the road, and threatened violence against passengers of Waymo vehicles.^[7][6] Human-on-robot attacks have occurred in San Francisco, with residents slapping and shouting at driverless vehicles in 2018.^[8] In late 2025, a group vandalised a Waymo in Los Angeles shortly after one of the company's driverless vehicles reportedly killed the cat KitKat in San Francisco.^[9]

Children have been observed standing in front of robots to obstruct them, verbally bullying robots and physically punching or kicking robots, despite pleas from the robots to stop.^[2]

Mitigation

The Starship Technologies food-delivery robots make a "screeching" sound when they are picked up, deterring theft or vandalism.^[10] Researchers have proposed making the robots appear as if they are experiencing pain to stop people from attacking them.^[3] Marieke Wieringa has warned against the mis-use of this strategy, which may be used to emotionally manipulate consumers, such as creating virtual pets that display distress when not fed, but must be paid to be fed.^[11]