{"id":"90c61ecd-2b8e-4670-8833-982bdeb2ff15","slug":"figure-02-steel-door-gash-allegation-2025","kind":"property_damage","headline":"Figure 02 alleged to have gashed a steel door in a malfunction (whistleblower lawsuit)","summary":"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).","occurredAt":"2025-11-21T12:00:00.000Z","reviewStatus":"reviewed","modelId":"f5599108-6c06-4af4-a669-378b87860daf","deploymentId":"77050abe-f698-40c3-a6bc-4d103d2bcc89","companyId":"7107d624-dbc3-4d73-9103-1138ebf6f754","dataCenterId":null,"aliases":[],"collisionRisk":"none","reviewNote":null,"severity":"moderate","rootCauseCategory":"undetermined","rootCauseDetail":"Alleged uncommanded/erratic motion damaging a steel door; specific fault not publicly established. Allegation in active litigation; disputed by Figure. Structural-metal damage implies significant force; no injury (near-miss).","affectedUnitsCount":1,"affectedUnitsBasis":"unknown","remediationStatus":"outstanding","regulatoryAction":"none","regulatoryBody":null,"propertyDamageEstimateUsd":null,"damageEstimateBasis":null,"bodilyInjurySeverity":null,"fatalityCount":null,"lossCostClass":null,"sourceQualityTier":null,"oshaRecordable":null,"oshaCaseNumber":null,"rootCauseDisclosed":null,"publicDisclosureDate":null,"insuranceClaimPublic":null,"formFactor":"humanoid","latitude":{"s":1,"e":1,"d":[34,9496000]},"longitude":{"s":-1,"e":1,"d":[81,9321000]},"autonomyClass":null,"legalOutcomeClass":"unknown","createdAt":"2026-06-04T19:47:29.827Z","updatedAt":"2026-07-21T23:41:31.192Z","model":{"id":"f5599108-6c06-4af4-a669-378b87860daf","companyId":"7107d624-dbc3-4d73-9103-1138ebf6f754","modelName":"Figure 02","slug":"figure-02","description":"Figure 02 is Figure AI's second-generation general-purpose humanoid robot, successor to Figure 01. Ran the company's flagship production deployment at BMW's Spartanburg plant (since ended). Built for industrial and manufacturing tasks. Features dexterous manipulation, vision-language-action AI (Helix), and bipedal locomotion.","formFactor":"humanoid","industryVertical":null,"environment":null,"maturityStage":"commercial","lifecycleState":"discontinued","supersededByModelId":"cab354ed-300c-4fa5-a4a9-f2c66b0a3a0e","specs":{"dof":35,"battery":"2.25 kWh","runtime":"5 h","height_cm":168,"weight_kg":70,"battery_wh":"2250","payload_kg":20},"manufacturerSerial":null,"reviewStatus":"reviewed","sources":[{"url":"https://www.figure.ai/news/production-at-bmw","title":"Figure AI — F.02 contributed to production of 30,000 cars at BMW; F.02 retirement begins","sourceName":"Figure AI","publishedAt":"2025-11-19"},{"url":"https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2025/11/25/humanoid-robots-complete-11-month-project-at-bmw-plant/","title":"Repairer Driven News — Figure 02 completes 11-month BMW project, retirement begins","sourceName":"Repairer Driven News","publishedAt":"2025-11-25"},{"url":"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/figure-unveils-figure-02-its-second-generation-humanoid-setting-new-standards-in-ai-and-robotics-302214889.html","title":"Figure unveils Figure 02, its second-generation humanoid (Aug 6, 2024)","sourceName":"Figure (PR Newswire)"},{"url":"https://www.therobotreport.com/figure-02-humanoid-robot-is-ready-to-get-to-work/","title":"Figure 02 humanoid is ready to get to work (Aug 2024)","sourceName":"The Robot Report"},{"url":"https://newatlas.com/robotics/figure-02-humanoid-robot-launch/","title":"Figure 02 (F.02) launch: specs and workplace/home aim (Aug 2024)","sourceName":"New Atlas"},{"url":"https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/figure-humanoid-robot-autonomous/","title":"Figure 02 next-gen conversational humanoid with 3x AI compute (dual NVIDIA RTX) (2024)","sourceName":"NVIDIA"},{"url":"https://www.figure.ai/news/helix","title":"Helix: a Vision-Language-Action model for generalist humanoid control (Feb 2025)","sourceName":"Figure (official)"},{"url":"https://newatlas.com/robotics/helix-vla-figure-02-robot/","title":"Figure's Helix VLA: humanoids do tasks they were not trained for (Feb 2025)","sourceName":"New Atlas"},{"url":"https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0455864EN/bmw-group-to-deploy-humanoid-robots-in-production-in-germany-for-the-first-time?language=en","title":"BMW Group: first humanoid pilot deployment successfully completed at Plant Spartanburg (Figure 02)","sourceName":"BMW Group (official)"},{"url":"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/figure-raises-675m-at-2-6b-valuation-and-signs-collaboration-agreement-with-openai-302074897.html","title":"Figure raises $675M Series B at $2.6B valuation; OpenAI collaboration agreement (Feb 29, 2024)","sourceName":"Figure (PR Newswire)"},{"url":"https://humanoid.guide/product/figure-02/","title":"Figure 02 Specs & Price","sourceName":"Humanoid Guide"},{"url":"https://x.com/Figure_robot/status/2105316680251650555","title":"Figure: F.02 Decommission","sourceName":"X (@Figure_robot)","publishedAt":"2026-09-30"},{"url":"https://x.com/adcock_brett/status/2105356889974562983","title":"Brett Adcock: BTS for F.02 Decommission (trained autonomous jump; Finland; molten steel)","sourceName":"X (@adcock_brett)","publishedAt":"2026-09-30"},{"url":"https://www.figure.ai/news/f-02-decommission","title":"F.02 Decommission (Figure AI company news)","sourceName":"Figure AI","publishedAt":"2026-09-30"},{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dd6qjusqEri/","title":"F.02 Decommission (Figure company Instagram)","sourceName":"Instagram (@figure_robot)","publishedAt":"2026-09-30"},{"url":"https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/figure-melts-f02-humanoid-robot-fleet/","title":"Figure melts retired F.02 humanoid robot fleet","sourceName":"eeNews Europe","publishedAt":"2026-10-06"}],"aliases":[],"collisionRisk":"low","reviewNote":null,"manufacturerTermForTeleop":null,"keyFacts":[{"label":"Generation (company-claimed)","value":"Figure's second-generation humanoid for industrial and manufacturing tasks."},{"label":"AI (company-claimed)","value":"Helix vision-language-action model."},{"label":"BMW Spartanburg (company-claimed)","value":"Deployed at BMW's Spartanburg plant under RaaS; the deployment has ended. Never sold to individuals."},{"label":"Retirement (company-claimed, Aug 2026)","value":"Brett Adcock announced F.02's retirement, citing HQ space constraints."},{"label":"Decommission (company-claimed, Sep 2026)","value":"Figure says most of the F.02 fleet was melted at a foundry in Imatra, Finland, as F.03 scaled up."}],"createdAt":"2026-05-26T02:16:30.202Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-12T22:04:02.326Z","unitsInFieldClaimed":null,"unitsInFieldVerified":null,"unitsManufacturedClaimed":null,"unitsManufacturedVerified":null,"unitsAsOf":"2026-07-08T00:00:00.000Z","unitsSource":[{"url":"https://ifactoryapp.com/industries/automotive-manufacturing/figure-03-bmw-spartanburg-case-study-humanoid","label":"Figure 02 was the initial platform deployed at BMW Spartanburg during Q2 2024"}],"salesModel":"pilot_only","priceUndisclosedSince":null,"autonomyClass":null,"autonomyStatement":null,"autonomyStatementSource":null,"demoForensics":null,"exportControlClass":null,"minCommitment":null,"warrantyTerms":null,"serviceModel":null,"productionRateClaimed":null,"productionRateEvidenced":null,"teleopRatioDisclosed":null,"interventionRateDisclosed":null},"deployment":{"id":"77050abe-f698-40c3-a6bc-4d103d2bcc89","modelId":"7696d87b-c9af-4724-b574-4bdfdb19f3b8","versionId":null,"locationId":"f42cb087-b4c0-49ea-97b6-d47fcfa6f304","operatorId":"7107d624-dbc3-4d73-9103-1138ebf6f754","ownerId":null,"slug":"figure-01-germany-europe","status":"operational","firstSeen":"2024-06-01T00:00:00.000Z","statusChangeReason":null,"contractType":null,"pilotOutcome":null,"endedAt":null,"unitsOnSite":null,"tasksPerformed":["manipulation","assembly","inspection","material_handling"],"shiftStructure":null,"hoursPerDay":8,"siteType":"factory","operatorConfirmed":null,"humanSupervisionOnsite":null,"locationPrecisionTier":"city_centroid","deploymentScale":"small_2_10","siteEnvironment":"indoor","operatorType":"maker_operated","sourceQualityTier":8,"manufacturerSerial":null,"reviewStatus":"reviewed","sources":[],"notes":"Commercial product — available for purchase in this market.","keyFacts":[],"reviewNote":"Bulk deepened — form-factor-based metadata assignment","exposureHours":null,"deploymentMilesEstimate":null,"exposureBasis":null,"customerSegment":"manufacturing","scaleTier":"pilot_lt10","contractValueUsd":null,"contractValueBasis":null,"customerCompanyId":null,"customerExternalName":null,"createdAt":"2026-08-20T04:09:13.504Z","updatedAt":"2026-08-20T16:27:54.916Z"},"company":{"id":"7107d624-dbc3-4d73-9103-1138ebf6f754","name":"Figure AI","slug":"figure-ai","description":"Sunnyvale-based humanoid-robotics company founded in 2022, among the fastest-moving US humanoid developers from prototype to production partnership. Its industrial humanoid [Figure 02](/models/figure-02) ran a flagship production deployment at [BMW](/companies/bmw)'s Spartanburg plant (since ended); the next-generation [Figure 03](/models/figure-03) (with notably dexterous hands, 16 DoF per hand) is its current platform, increasingly oriented toward both industrial RaaS and eventual home use. Figure develops its own [Helix](/brains/helix) vision-language-action AI and operates BotQ, a manufacturing facility tooled to produce up to ~12,000 Figure robots per year.\n\nFinancials: Figure raised over $1 billion in a Series C (September 2025) at a $39 billion valuation, a roughly 15x jump from its $2.6 billion valuation in February 2024, bringing total funding raised to roughly $1.7 billion. Investors include NVIDIA and Qualcomm Ventures.\n\nReality check: Figure's elevated valuation is partly home-market optionality; CEO [Brett Adcock](/people/brett-adcock) has acknowledged home autonomy is not yet ready for unsupervised operation, so near-term revenue is industrial robots-as-a-service. The BMW deployment, though small in unit count, represents genuine factory integration rather than lab demos. BotQ's 12,000/yr is production capacity, not current output.","status":"private","founded":2022,"hq":"Sunnyvale, California, USA","hqLat":37.3688301,"hqLng":-122.036349,"hqGeocodedAt":"2026-08-05T14:29:17.692Z","hqAddress":null,"hqPrecision":null,"website":"figure.ai","fundingTotal":"1745000000","type":"both","roles":["robot_maker","robot_operator"],"reviewStatus":"reviewed","heatIndex":94,"lifecycleState":"active","supersededByCompanyId":null,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.figure.ai/","title":"Figure — company website","sourceName":"Figure AI","publishedAt":"2026-01-01"},{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_AI","title":"Figure AI — Wikipedia","sourceName":"Wikipedia","publishedAt":"2026-01-01"},{"url":"https://techfundingnews.com/figure-ai-raises-over-1b-at-a-39b-valuation-advancing-humanoid-robotics-for-real-world-labour/","title":"Figure AI raised $1B+ at $39B valuation (Series C)","sourceName":"Tech Funding News","publishedAt":"2025-09-17"},{"url":"https://www.figure.ai/news/series-c","title":"Figure Exceeds $1B in Series C Funding at $39B Post-Money Valuation (Sept 16, 2025) - led by Parkway VC; incl. Brookfield, NVIDIA, Intel Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Salesforce, LG, T-Mobile","sourceName":"Figure AI (official)"},{"url":"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/figure-raises-675m-at-2-6b-valuation-and-signs-collaboration-agreement-with-openai-302074897.html","title":"Figure raises $675M Series B at $2.6B valuation; OpenAI collaboration agreement (Feb 29, 2024)","sourceName":"Figure (PR Newswire)"},{"url":"https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/29/figure-rides-the-humanoid-robot-hype-wave-to-2-6b-valuation-and-openai-collab/","title":"Figure hits $2.6B valuation on $675M Series B (Microsoft, OpenAI, NVIDIA, Bezos, Intel) (Feb 2024)","sourceName":"TechCrunch"},{"url":"https://www.therobotreport.com/figure-ai-raises-675m-to-commercialize-humanoids/","title":"Figure AI raises $675M to commercialize humanoids (Feb 2024)","sourceName":"The Robot Report"},{"url":"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/figure-exceeds-1b-in-series-c-funding-at-39b-post-money-valuation-302556936.html","title":"Figure exceeds $1B Series C at $39B (Parkway, Brookfield, NVIDIA, Intel, LG, Salesforce, T-Mobile, Qualcomm) (Sept 2025)","sourceName":"Figure (PR Newswire)"},{"url":"https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/16/figure-reaches-39b-valuation-in-latest-funding-round/","title":"Figure reaches $39B valuation in Series C (Sept 16, 2025)","sourceName":"TechCrunch"},{"url":"https://www.intelcapital.com/figure-exceeds-1b-in-series-c-funding-at-39b-post-money-valuation/","title":"Figure Series C at $39B (Intel Capital, investor)","sourceName":"Intel Capital"},{"url":"https://www.robotics247.com/article/general_purpose_humanoid_developer_figure_ai_exceeds_1_billion_after_series_c_funding_round","title":"Figure AI exceeds $1B after Series C (Sept 2025)","sourceName":"Robotics 24/7"},{"url":"https://x.com/adcock_brett/status/2102512319523913751","title":"Brett Adcock: four gated stages of humanoid maturity","sourceName":"Brett Adcock (X)","publishedAt":"2026-09-22"},{"url":"https://x.com/adcock_brett/status/2102514367564816764","title":"Brett Adcock: We just started Chapter 3","sourceName":"Brett Adcock (X)","publishedAt":"2026-09-22"},{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/Ddo9Hs3kkIe/","title":"Figure humanoids at BMW factories (secondary Instagram coverage)","sourceName":"Instagram (@uncover.robotics / via Deploy.Report digest)","publishedAt":"2026-09-23"},{"url":"https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/09/28/3369606/0/en/nvidia-launches-open-agent-safety-platform-to-secure-agents-from-testing-to-deployment.html","title":"NVIDIA Open Agent Safety Platform (lists Figure among robotics leaders)","sourceName":"GlobeNewswire (NVIDIA)","publishedAt":"2026-09-28"},{"url":"https://x.com/adcock_brett/status/2104589256396292564","title":"Brett Adcock: Figure is proud to partner with NVIDIA on Open Agent Safety Platform","sourceName":"X (@adcock_brett)","publishedAt":"2026-09-28"},{"url":"https://x.com/JensenHuang/status/2104499465055023424","title":"Jensen Huang announces Open Agent Safety Platform","sourceName":"X (@JensenHuang)","publishedAt":"2026-09-28"},{"url":"https://x.com/Figure_robot/status/2105316680251650555","title":"Figure: F.02 Decommission","sourceName":"X (@Figure_robot)","publishedAt":"2026-09-30"},{"url":"https://x.com/adcock_brett/status/2105356889974562983","title":"Brett Adcock: BTS for F.02 Decommission (trained autonomous jump; Finland; molten steel)","sourceName":"X (@adcock_brett)","publishedAt":"2026-09-30"},{"url":"https://www.figure.ai/news/f-02-decommission","title":"F.02 Decommission (Figure AI company news)","sourceName":"Figure AI","publishedAt":"2026-09-30"},{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dd6qjusqEri/","title":"F.02 Decommission (Figure company Instagram)","sourceName":"Instagram (@figure_robot)","publishedAt":"2026-09-30"},{"url":"https://www.theinformation.com/articles/nvidias-100-billion-dealmaking-juggernaut-will-go-next","title":"Where Nvidia's $100 Billion Dealmaking Juggernaut Will Go Next","sourceName":"The Information","publishedAt":"2026-10-07"},{"url":"https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Nvidia-may-have-planned-dollar1B-investment-in-Figure/67251427","title":"Nvidia may have planned $1B investment in Figure","sourceName":"Breaking The News (Dow Jones)","publishedAt":"2026-10-07"}],"keyFacts":[{"label":"Valuation","value":"$39B at the Series C (Sep 2025), up about 15x from $2.6B in Feb 2024."},{"label":"Robots","value":"Figure 03 (16 degrees of freedom per hand) is current. Figure 02 ran the BMW Spartanburg production deployment, now ended."},{"label":"AI stack","value":"Helix, an in-house vision-language-action model."},{"label":"BotQ factory","value":"High-volume humanoid plant opened in 2025 with initial capacity of 12,000 robots a year; Figure 03 production ramp announced Apr 29 2026."},{"label":"Production rate (company-claimed)","value":"55 Figure 03s a week (Jul 2026); the CEO has said one robot per hour, up from one a day."},{"label":"Business model","value":"Industrial robots-as-a-service. Home autonomy is not yet ready for unsupervised use, per the CEO."},{"label":"NVIDIA safety platform (company-claimed)","value":"Sep 2026: Building with NVIDIA's Open Agent Safety Platform (OpenShell and Sentry), one of 100+ partners. Not an exclusive deal."},{"label":"F.02 decommission (company-claimed)","value":"Sep 2026: Most of the F.02 fleet was melted in a 75-ton arc furnace in Imatra, Finland, to speed F.04; a few are kept and the metal becomes commemorative pieces."},{"label":"Possible NVIDIA investment (reported, Oct 2026)","value":"NVIDIA has discussed investing about $1B more, per The Information. Talks only; neither company confirmed."}],"aliases":["Figure","Figure Robotics","Figure AI Inc","Figure 02","Figure 03","Figure robot"],"collisionRisk":"low","reviewNote":null,"atsProvider":"greenhouse","atsSlug":"figureai","factoryLocations":null,"manufacturingCapacity":null,"orgType":null,"burnSignal":null,"litigationEvents":null,"insurancePostureDisclosed":null,"unitEconomicsDisclosed":null,"tickerSymbol":null,"stockExchange":null,"secCik":null,"revenueUsd":null,"revenueBasis":null,"revenueAsOf":null,"employeeCount":600,"employeeCountBasis":null,"employeeCountAsOf":null,"marketCapUsd":null,"marketCapAsOf":null,"marketCapSource":null,"createdAt":"2026-05-25T17:24:17.276Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-13T02:44:33.884Z"},"derived":{"status":"active"},"sources":[{"id":"3cd6c37e-27b5-430d-beb9-9c470d330824","incidentId":"90c61ecd-2b8e-4670-8833-982bdeb2ff15","url":"https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/whistleblower-fired-warning-robot-crush-skull","label":"Futurism","publishedAt":null,"notes":null,"title":null,"sourceName":null,"mediaType":"article","videoId":null,"channel":null,"durationSec":null,"timestampSec":null,"createdAt":"2026-06-04T19:47:29.827Z","updatedAt":"2026-06-04T19:47:29.827Z"},{"id":"3840bfe9-f7ea-4af8-8eae-21083c57992e","incidentId":"90c61ecd-2b8e-4670-8833-982bdeb2ff15","url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/21/figure-ai-sued.html","label":"CNBC","publishedAt":null,"notes":null,"title":null,"sourceName":null,"mediaType":"article","videoId":null,"channel":null,"durationSec":null,"timestampSec":null,"createdAt":"2026-06-04T19:47:29.827Z","updatedAt":"2026-06-04T19:47:29.827Z"}],"responses":[],"statusEvents":[],"jsonLd":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://registry.deploy.report/incidents/figure-02-steel-door-gash-allegation-2025","url":"https://registry.deploy.report/incidents/figure-02-steel-door-gash-allegation-2025","headline":"Figure 02 alleged to have gashed a steel door in a malfunction (whistleblower lawsuit)","description":"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).","identifier":"90c61ecd-2b8e-4670-8833-982bdeb2ff15","datePublished":"2025-11-21T12:00:00.000Z","articleSection":"property damage","publisher":{"@id":"https://deploy.report/#organization"},"author":{"@id":"https://deploy.report/#organization"}},"framework_metadata":{"framework_schema_version":"0.1.0","verification_status":"verified","maturity_stage":null,"lifecycle_state":null,"architectural_position":{"cohort":null,"sub_cohorts":[]},"within_cohort_verified_vs_claimed_pair":null,"cap_flags":[],"verification_depth":{"sources_count":2,"primary_source_types":["secondary-established-publication"]}}}