Robot collision at Ocado warehouse near London sparks fire, delaying orders

Ocado seems to have a history of fire problems. There was a massive fire Feb 2019 that destroyed one of their warehouses...

Obligatory Tom Scott video of the robots working in presumably the same warehouse

Bad timing Tom! (or he's cursed)

At least he got the video out before it burned down this time.

The bots appear to be self-propelled IE lithium-battery-powered, no?

I wonder if it would be feasible to do it bumper-car style, with poles collecting current from the ceiling.

Nice idea, i might steal it.

So would a robot collision be a software error, or a hardware error? Perhaps a lag?

Everything is a software error. It might have been a hardware error as well, but the software "should have" detected it and prevented it.

That's what software gets for being the brains, and the easiest to change (and therefore the most attractive part to blame).