A surgical instrument includes an end effector a drivetrain configured to transmit at least one motion to the end effector and an electric motor operably coupled to the firing drivetrain wherein the electric motor is configured to generate a mechanical output to motivate the drivetrain to transmit the at least one motion to the end effector. The surgical instrument further includes a controller that has a processor and a memory storing program instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to activate a safe mode in response to an acute failure of the drivetrain and activate a bailout mode in response to a catastrophic failure of the drivetrain.
