Is Figure 02 autonomous?
Partly, but the fully autonomous framing is Figure's own claim, not an independently verified fact. Figure 02 runs Figure's Helix AI model, which is trained on human teleoperation data, and Figure describes its BMW factory work as autonomous. DEPLOY records that autonomy as manufacturer-claimed rather than independently confirmed.
Key facts
- Form factor
- humanoid
- Maturity
- commercial
- Verified deployments
- 2
- Maker
- Figure AI
On the record
BMW Group footage of a Figure 02 robot during a test run in the body shop at BMW Group Plant Spartanburg.
The short answer
Figure 02 has genuine onboard AI, but "autonomous" is doing a lot of work in Figure's marketing. The claim that it operates fully on its own is Figure's framing, and the registry does not treat it as independently verified.
What is verified
Per the Figure 02 registry record, the robot runs Helix, Figure AI's vision-language-action model, and did real work at BMW Spartanburg. The deployment itself is verified: named site, primary sources, real parts handling.
What is only claimed
The autonomy is where care is needed. Figure's own materials note that Helix is trained on teleoperation data, meaning human demonstrations underlie its behavior. Figure describes the Spartanburg fleet operation and its Helix package-handling demos as autonomous, but that description is the maker's. DEPLOY has not independently confirmed that Figure 02 runs without a human in the loop, so on the registry the autonomy sits as claimed, not verified.
How to read it
This is not an accusation that Figure 02 is fake. It plainly did factory work. The precise, honest statement is that the robot is real and deployed, and its full autonomy is a company claim awaiting independent confirmation. The successor Figure 03 carries the same posture: its impressive home demos are described by Figure as autonomous, and are recorded as demonstrated-only or teleoperated-assisted until verified.
For how DEPLOY separates the two, see verified-vs-claimed.
Frequently asked
Does Figure 02 operate on its own?
It has real onboard AI (the Helix model) and did real factory work, but Figure's fully autonomous description is a company claim that DEPLOY has not independently verified. Helix is trained on human teleoperation data.
Is Figure 02 teleoperated?
Figure presents its factory work as autonomous rather than teleoperated, but the underlying Helix model is trained on teleoperation data and the autonomy is not independently confirmed on the registry.
Where it is deployed
2 verified deployments on the registry for the Figure 02. Click any marker to open its primary-source record.
Explore the deployment map
See where these robots are verified operating, by place and type.
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