Earlier quoted context omitted.
There’s a decent amount of factory automation that is essentially fully autonomous with the exception of a “big red emergency shutdown” button for a human to press if all the other safeties fail. Many operate without continuous oversight and in the cases where a human is positioned to watch its usually for economic reasons rather than safety (e.g., to stop the operation if there is a quality issue that will render th…
My understanding is that with factory automation usually it's designed to the human is not in danger (usually they aren't even present at all). Are there factories that exist that are automated in a way where the human is exposed to a potentially lethal injury?
Yes, but probably to a lesser extent than driving a car. Everything has sensors that are meant to identify a risk to a human and stop whatever operation poses that risk.
E.g., there may be robots picking thousands of pounds of parts and driving them around a facility but they stop if they sense a human a their path. Same for welding, stamping, etc. All those operations can injure or kill but unlike vehicles they can rely on the mitigation of “stop and wait”. It’s a much easier problem than self-driving