A food delivery robot was destroyed after it caught fire because of “human error”, its creator has confirmed.
Kiwibot autonomous delivery robots have been rolling around the University of California, Berkeley campus for two years.
On Friday, students found one of the robots in flames and shared photos on social media.
Kiwi said the cause was a “defective battery” that had been accidentally installed in the robot.
“One of the batteries for our robot that was idling started smouldering, eventually leading to some smoke and minor flames,” the company said in a statement.
“A member of the community acted swiftly to extinguish the flames using a nearby fire extinguisher.”