Uber Eats Delivery Robot Destroyed After Getting Stuck On Train Tracks In Miami

An Uber Eats delivery robot’s routine route took a dramatic — and destructive — turn in Miami when the autonomous device was struck and crushed by an oncoming train.

The incident, which occurred on Thursday, Jan. 15, was caught on video and shared widely online. The clip, filmed by Guillermo Dapelo, shows the small delivery robot sitting motionless on railroad tracks as a train approaches at full speed.

In the video, Dapelo can be heard realizing what’s about to happen. “Oh it’s gonna crash it,” he says moments before the train barrels through, destroying the robot on impact. Dapelo told Storyful he spotted the robot around 8 p.m. while walking his dogs. According to the Miami native, the robot had been stuck on the tracks for roughly 15 minutes.

An Uber Eats delivery driver had reportedly contacted the robot’s operating company “to let them know where it was standing and within a matter of minutes the train approached and everything else is captured on the video,” Dapelo told the outlet.

PEOPLE reached out to Uber Eats for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

The brief video highlights a growing concern as delivery robots become common in urban areas: what happens when automated machines encounter infrastructure they can’t safely navigate. Rail crossings, in particular, pose a serious risk. Trains cannot stop quickly, and experts note that a freight train traveling at speed can take than a mile to come to a complete stop, even after emergency braking is applied.

Delivery robots are designed to follow mapped routes and avoid obstacles, but unusual terrain, mechanical errors or signal misinterpretation can leave them stranded. As companies continue expanding automated delivery services, incidents like this raise questions about oversight, fail-safe systems and coordination with local infrastructure.

While no people were injured in this incident, the outcome could have been far serious. Rail safety organizations consistently warn that anything left on tracks — whether it’s a vehicle, debris or, in this case, a robot — can cause damage, derailments or dangerous emergencies for train operators.