Delivery robot causes Tallinn bus crash, leaves scene, nine hurt

A self-driving delivery robot collided with a city bus at a pedestrian crossing in central Tallinn on Monday evening, injuring up to 9 passengers who fell when the driver braked sharply, Tallinn's municipal transport operator TLT said. The robot left the scene before police arrived.

The collision happened at around 6pm at the intersection of Luise and Tehnika streets, TLT said. The Bolt-branded robot approached from Tehnika street and entered the crossing against a red light, a claim confirmed by the bus driver and other road users, according to TLT. Video footage released by the company shows the bus and robot colliding, with the robot thrown along the road before driving off.

"The robot fled, if you can put it that way," TLT board member Andrei Novikov said, adding that police must establish the exact circumstances. A TLT spokesperson said that if a party to a traffic accident leaves the scene without fulfilling its legal obligations, this may constitute an offence.

Pepe Aaviksoo of Starship Technologies, which makes the robot, said the company was aware of the crash, had contacted police and opened an internal investigation. "It is extremely regrettable that such an accident happened," he said, adding that safety was the company's top priority.

The robots can carry up to 15 kilograms over a distance of five kilometres and use several cameras to navigate pavements automatically, Aaviksoo said. They operate in seven countries and have completed 11 million autonomous deliveries over 24 million kilometres, he said, and had crossed the Luise/Tehnika intersection alone more than 4,000 times without incident before Monday's crash.

This was only the second reported collision between a bus and a delivery robot in Tallinn. In April 2020, a robot drove into a bus's wheel in the Mustamäe district, but no one was injured.