An autonomous delivery robot operated by Bolt was involved in a crash with a city bus in central Tallinn on October 26. According to Tallinn municipal transport company TLT, the robot entered a pedestrian crossing while the signal was red, forcing the bus driver to brake sharply. Several standing passengers fell, and nine people were injured.
Video from the bus shows the robot being pushed along the road after the incident before continuing on its route. Andrei Novikov, an executive at TLT, described the event to local media ERR as the robot having “fled, so to speak”. A TLT spokesperson said leaving the scene without complying with the law could constitute an offence.
Starship, the company that designs the robots, offered a different account. Its head of operations, Pepe Aaviksoo, said the incident occurred at night and that a bright advertisement behind the traffic light made it harder for the robot to identify the pedestrian signal. He also pointed to the fact that the pedestrian and vehicle lights were aligned from the robot’s perspective, and acknowledged a problem with its light sensitivity.
Starship rejects the description of the incident as a hit-and-run. Aaviksoo said the robot remained near the scene for about 10 minutes and alerted the company’s support team that it needed to be removed from the road. He added that employees did not see police or emergency medical services at the location.
The case highlights the unresolved legal questions surrounding autonomous vehicles and delivery machines. The European Union’s new product liability directive treats software and artificial intelligence as products, but it will apply only to products placed on the market from December 9, 2026. Robots already operating in Tallinn and other European cities therefore remain subject to the older framework dating from 1985.
The European Commission has also withdrawn a proposed directive on liability for damage caused by artificial intelligence. Axel Voss, the member of the European Parliament who was responsible for the proposal, described the withdrawal as a strategic mistake. Criminal liability for incidents such as leaving an accident scene remains largely governed by national law, since the EU’s powers in this area are limited.
Estonia’s traffic law has included autonomous delivery robots since 2017 and treats their owner as a driver for legal purposes. If a robot belongs to a last-mile delivery platform such as Bolt, the company is generally responsible and must have liability insurance for potential accidents. If the manufacturer owns the robot and provides it to platforms as a service, responsibility may instead fall on the manufacturer.
The Tallinn crash comes as autonomous delivery services expand across Europe. Starship said in June that it had completed more than 10 million deliveries with over 3,000 robots operating in 300 locations across eight countries. Uber Eats is already using similar robots in Leeds and plans to add more European countries in 2026. In Spain, Zaragoza introduced delivery robots from Goggo Network in 2022, while its mobility councillor said rules did not need to change because the machines were not vehicles. Estonia’s legislation takes the opposite approach, requiring them to assume the same responsibilities as drivers when they run red lights.
Sources: Xataka.