A South Korean woman napping on the floor recently awoke to find her robot vacuum cleaner had eaten her hair, and she had to call emergency services to get free.
The woman, referred to in reports as Yoon, called Changwon city’s fire department to help her, and it took four workers about 30 minutes to open the vacuum and
get her hair loose, according to Yahoo Tech.
Yahoo said the robot vacuums have sensors to help them avoid obstacles, but apparently the device thought the woman’s hair was the dust and dirt it usually cleans.
“This case was quite special," a fire department spokesperson told Yahoo. "We had seen weird things, but this was a very weird call that we received."
The incident spurred numerous online accounts of robots taking over the world, a la “Terminator.”
DramaFever.com reported that the robot’s attack on the woman may “go down in history as the first official victim of a robot attack on a human.”
The Daily Dot reported that iRobot, the makers of the popular Roomba robotic vacuum, sent them a message about the story, insisting that it was not a Roomba involved in the South Korean attack.
“The safety of our customers is paramount for iRobot, and all of the company’s products undergo strict development processes and testing before going to market,” the company said.
Indeed, the Roomba instructions and warranty say clearly:
“Keep loose clothing, hair, and body parts away from brushes and moving parts.”
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