A Volkswagen plant worker is dead after being struck by a robot inside one of the automaker's German factories.

The Financial Times reports that the 22-year-old technician was killed by a robot near Kassel, Germany. According to reports, the employee was installing the robot together with his colleague when he was struck in the chest by the robot and pressed against the metal gate. He later died of injuries suffered by the accident. The name of the deceased has not been released.

The Guardian reports that an internal investigation concluded that human error was to blame. The robot can be programed to do various tasks in the assembly process. Workers are protected by a safety cage.

The second employee was not harmed and was outside the safety cage. He declined to give any information about what happened during the accident.

Robot-related fatalities are rare since there are laws protecting employees from danger in the workplace.

A Volkswagen representative issue a statement about the robot, via Boing Boing, which "was not one of the new generation of lightweight collaborative robots that work side-by-side with workers on the production line and forgo safety cages," and had no known technical defect.

Prosecutors are determining to see if they can force a change in safety.

Robots are slowly replacing humans to help create cars. Entrepreneur Elon Musk stated that the artificial intelligence in robots will only get smarter and powerful. He stated that Artificial Intelligence could be the "biggest existential threat to humans" and compared it to "summoning the demon."

Earlier this year, Musk donated $10 million dollars to a research program called the "Future of Life Institute." It is a program dedicated to ensuring that artificial intelligence technology does not turn destructive.