On the evening of October 26, a traffic accident involving a delivery robot occurred in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. A Starship Technologies delivery robot ran a red light, forcing a bus to brake abruptly and injuring nine passengers. The bus's camera captured the moment of impact, and the robot involved left the scene before police arrived. Starship attributed the accident to technical issues: the light was dim at the time, and a brightly lit billboard behind the traffic light interfered with the robot's perception; from the device's perspective, the bus and the signal light were aligned, increasing recognition difficulty; at the same time, the robot's light sensor was not functioning properly. The company stated it would focus on fixing the related issues. Chief Operating Officer Pepe Aaviksoo denied that the robot fled the scene, saying that the robot remained at the scene for about 10 minutes before contacting the support team to remove it from the road. This model of robot is Level 4 and supports 99% autonomous movement. It has completed more than 10 million deliveries and can transport hot food, groceries, and industrial supplies, among other items.
