RobotRisk Autonomous Systems Incident & Risk Register
RobotRisk / medical robotics / Neuralink

Neuralink

Products: neuro-robot. Risk band: Elevated   RobotRisk index 22.6/100 (incidents/exposure, time-weighted) · 94th percentile of 162 medical robotics companies.

Analyst brief

The record contains two entries: a 2024 malfunction in which brain-implant threads retracted in the first human trial patient, and a 2022 federal inquiry into animal deaths during preclinical implant testing. Severity is 3 and 4 respectively, and the two entries span both a device-performance malfunction in human use and a federal investigative action tied to earlier preclinical work. The index of 21.4 and 94.4th percentile place the company in the elevated band within medical-robotics. The record shows two distinct failure types at different stages of development (preclinical animal testing and first-in-human deployment) rather than a single repeated fault.

Entries by year and severity

012024 S3: 1124
S1S2S3S4S5

By incident type

By severity

RobotRisk index vs medical robotics alternatives

Comparisons over time

RobotRisk index over time

Yearly entries vs category average

malfunction over time vs category

Incident log (2 unique incidents)

SevDateTypeLocationIncidentSource
S305/08
2024
malfunction Neuralink brain implant threads retract in first human patient CBS News
S4 fatality Federal inquiry into Neuralink over animal deaths in implant testing The Guardian

Alternatives in medical robotics

Intuitive SurgicalStryker MakoMedtronic HugoAsensus SurgicalCMR SurgicalAuris Health (J&J MedTech)Noah MedicalOmnicell
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