Incident · Property damage
Figure 02 alleged to have gashed a steel door in a malfunction (whistleblower lawsuit)
A wrongful-termination complaint filed Nov 21 2025 by former Figure principal safety engineer Robert Gruendel alleges that a Figure 02 (F.02) malfunctioned and carved a roughly quarter-inch-deep gash into a steel appliance door, and that internal impact testing produced forces more than twice a human-skull-fracture threshold, with a person standing nearby. VERIFIED-VS-CLAIMED: the lawsuit's existence and filed allegations are verified by tier-1 outlets (CNBC), but the malfunction itself is an UNPROVEN ALLEGATION in active litigation; Figure denies the claims and says Gruendel was terminated for performance. Recorded as a litigation-sourced allegation, not established fact. Cap-flag: incident date not disclosed (the Nov 21 2025 anchor is the lawsuit filing date; safety-testing referenced ~Jul-Sep 2025).
Occurred 2025-11-21 · Figure 02
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /incidents/figure-02-steel-door-gash-allegation-2025.md
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/incidents/90c61ecd-2b8e-4670-8833-982bdeb2ff15
- Data documentation: /data
Sources (2)
Common questions
- What happened in Figure 02 alleged to have gashed a steel door in a malfunction (whistleblower lawsuit)?
- A wrongful-termination complaint filed Nov 21 2025 by former Figure principal safety engineer Robert Gruendel alleges that a Figure 02 (F.02) malfunctioned and carved a roughly quarter-inch-deep gash into a steel appliance door, and that internal impact testing produced forces more than twice a human-skull-fracture threshold, with a person standing nearby. VERIFIED-VS-CLAIMED: the lawsuit's existence and filed allegations are verified by tier-1 outlets (CNBC), but the malfunction itself is an UNPROVEN ALLEGATION in active litigation; Figure denies the claims and says Gruendel was terminated for performance. Recorded as a litigation-sourced allegation, not established fact. Cap-flag: incident date not disclosed (the Nov 21 2025 anchor is the lawsuit filing date; safety-testing referenced ~Jul-Sep 2025).
- When did this incident occur?
- The incident is recorded as occurring on November 21, 2025 on the DEPLOY registry. The date reflects the underlying real-world event, not the registry record's creation date.
- What robot was involved in Figure 02 alleged to have gashed a steel door in a malfunction (whistleblower lawsuit)?
- Figure 02 is the recorded robot involved in this incident.
- Has anyone responded to Figure 02 alleged to have gashed a steel door in a malfunction (whistleblower lawsuit)?
- No responses to this incident are recorded on the DEPLOY registry. Operators, manufacturers, or affected parties can submit responses to the editorial team; absence is not a guarantee no response was issued.
- What is the current status of Figure 02 alleged to have gashed a steel door in a malfunction (whistleblower lawsuit)?
- This incident is an active record on the DEPLOY registry; no retraction or correction has been issued.
Methodology: Verified · 2 sources (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-06-04
Verification posture
Verified
Medium confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-06-04
Sources by quality tier
- 1
- secondary-established-publication
- Established publication
- 1
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Figure 02 alleged to have gashed a steel door in a malfunction (whistleblower lawsuit).Canonical ID 90c61ecd-2b8e-4670-8833-982bdeb2ff15