[jcommin]

Most of this type of technology have "black boxes" which have real time data of the performance of the equipment. The equipment is typically shut down and quarantined pending an investigation. There are procedures followed for an accident investigation: a team is form to review what happened. The manufacturer will probably get called in to do due diligence to see if the robot malfunctioned. But most of this type of equipment have " black boxes" that monitor the functions.

Then there are the questions: were procedures followed? Was the person trained to do the job? Were there witnesses. It is a who, what, when, where, why process. Typically any accident is made known to every plant, in this case VW, describing the incident and urging every plant that has a similar process to review safety, contractor, etc to prevent a similar occurrence. Companies take accidents very seriously no one wants an accident on their watch. Since this happened in Europe, the plant manger can be sued and cou;d do jail time . Europe is different than the USA.