Kiwibot food delivery robot catches fire

A Kiwibot food delivery robot caught fire on the UC Berkeley campus, resulting in it having to be doused in foam by the local fire department. No one was harmed.

The delivery service company later said it reckoned the fire was caused by human error after a faulty battery had been manually inserted into the robot.

Per The Verge, Kiwibot was launched in 2017, and its bots are designed to handle the last 300 meters of food deliveries. 

System

• Kiwibot website

• Incident video

• Kiwibot (2018). An update for our community

News, commentary, analysis

• https://mashable.com/article/kiwibot-fire-uc-berkeley/

• https://www.dailycal.org/2018/12/14/kiwibot-catches-fire-outside-mlk-student-union/

• https://www.pcmag.com/news/delivery-robot-catches-fire-in-california

• https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/12/17/138572/a-food-delivery-robot-burst-into-flames-and-now-people-have-made-a-candlelit/

• https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/17/18144304/kiwibot-fire-berkeley-california-thermal-runaway-faulty-battery

• https://boingboing.net/2018/12/17/popular-delivery-bot-bursts-in.html

• https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/kiwi-delivery-robot-fire-combust-human-error-uc-berkeley-campus-samsung-galaxy-note-a8687856.html