Figure AI Faces Whistleblower Lawsuit Over Robot Safety Concerns

Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup's robots could 'fracture a human skull'

Figure AI, an Nvidia-backed developer of humanoid robots, was sued by the startup's former head of product safety who alleged that he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company's robots "were powerful enough to fracture a human skull." Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, is the plaintiff in the suit filed Friday in a federal court in the Northern District of California. Gruendel's attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, days after lodging his "most direct and documented safety complaints." The suit lands two months after Figure was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. That's a 15-fold increase in valuation from early 2024, when the company raised a round from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft. In the complaint, Gruendel's lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett Adcock and Kyle Edelberg, chief engineer, about the robot's lethal capabilities, and said one "had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction." The complaint also says Gruendel warned company leaders not to "downgrade" a "safety road map" that he had been asked to present to two prospective investors who ended up funding the company. Gruendel worried that a "product safety plan which contributed to their decision to invest" had been "gutted" the same month Figure closed the investment round, a move that "could be interpreted as fraudulent," the suit says. The plaintiff's concerns were "treated as obstacles, not obligations," and the company cited a "vague 'change in business direction' as the pretext" for his termination, according to the suit. Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory and punitive damages and demanding a jury trial. Figure didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did attorneys for Gruendel. The humanoid robot market remains nascent today, with companies like Tesla and Boston Dynamics pursuing futuristic offerings, alongside Figure, while China's Unitree Robotics is preparing for an IPO. Morgan Stanley said in a report in May that adoption is "likely to accelerate in the 2030s" and could top $5 trillion by 2050.

AI robots with the power to crush skulls? "Whistleblower" lawsuit sounds alarm on Figure AI

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. WTF?! Does the increasing pace of humanoid robot and AI advancement concern you? Here's a story that could exacerbate those concerns. Figure AI, the startup backed by the likes of Nvidia and Jeff Bezos, is being sued by its former head of product safety who claims he was released from his role after warning executives about the robots' safety risks. He even claimed the machines were powerful enough to fracture a human skull. The case has been filed in the Northern District of California by Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer. He alleges that he was dismissed from Figure AI in September after lodging safety complaints about the company's humanoid robots. Gruendel's lawyers, who describe him as a "whistleblower," say he warned CEO Brett Adcock and chief engineer Kyle Edelberg about the robots' skull-crushing lethal capabilities. He said that one had already carved a quarter-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction. Gruendel says he had been asked to prepare a safety roadmap for a presentation to two prospective investors, but had warned executives not to "downgrade" his work. The safety engineer claims that the plan he presented was "gutted" in the same month that Figure AI closed a big investment round - a move he believes could have mislead backers and be interpreted as fraudulent. Gruendel says his warnings were treated as inconveniences and obstacles, rather than obligations, and that his termination was blamed on a "vague" change in business direction. Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory, and punitive damages, according to CNBC. He is also demanding a jury trial. Figure AI says that Gruendel's termination was due to his poor performance, adding that his allegations are falsehoods that the company will discredit in court. "This case involves important and emerging issues, and may be among the first whistleblower cases related to the safety of humanoid robots," Robert Ottinger, Gruendel's attorney, told CNBC. "Mr. Gruendel looks forward to the judicial process exposing the clear danger this rush to market approach presents to the public." In February 2024, Figure AI's plan to develop human-like robots powered by artificial intelligence convinced backers to invest $675 million. Amazon, Nvidia, Microsoft, Intel's venture capital division, and Bezos-owned Explore Investments were some of the big investors. The company forecasts more than 200,000 of its robots deployed across factories and homes by 2029, generating $9 billion in revenue. Humanoid robots being able to crush skulls certainly isn't a reassuring thought. Russia's first AI robot couldn't even waddled ten feet without falling over, though the country did unveil another model last week that performed a dance for an unimpressed-looking Vladimir Putin.

You Must Read This Riveting Whistleblower Lawsuit About Allegedly Dangerous Robots

The allegations detailed in a new whistleblower lawsuit against a Silicon Valley robotics company read like the first act of a sci-fi suspense movie: a sidelined safety technician plays Cassandra while a robotics company allegedly rushes ahead trying to commercialize a powerful humanoid robot with bone-crunching capabilities. The situation gets more and more sinisterâ€"and intolerable for the safety officerâ€"and finally, company leadership allegedly just gets rid of him so they can build their terminators in peace. These are just allegations, to be abundantly clear, and a spokesperson for the company itself, Figure AI, has told CNBC the safety technician was “terminated for poor performance.†The claims in the lawsuit are “falsehoods that Figure will thoroughly discredit in court,†the spokesperson further claims. If the lawsuitâ€"framed as a case of alleged retaliatory termination against a whistleblowerâ€"is really fiction, it's the start of a blockbuster. It invokes riveting corporate dramas like Michael Clayton or The Insider, with a dash of Robocop. You may remember Figure AI. The company released an eye-popping demo of its 01 model last year in which a humanoid robot appeared to respond to spoken, open-ended commands by carrying out tasks of its own choosing. A request for “something to eat†results in the robot gently handing the user an apple, for instance. The plaintiff, Robert Gruendel, a robotics safety engineer, who once worked in R&D for Amazon according to his LinkedIn, says he only joined Figure after that demo was made. The suit he filed Friday in a federal court for California’s Northern District, claims that in his first week on the job, he discovered that Figure had “no formal safety procedures, incident-reporting systems, or risk-assessment processes for the robots,†and that the only other person responsible for worker safety was an outside contractor with experience in chip manufacturing, not robots. Most mentions of a robot in the suit concern Figure's 02 model, depicted below: Initially, as outlined in the suit, company brass is receptive to these concerns when Gruendel voices them, and CEO Brett Adcock and chief engineer Kyle Edelberg approve a safety “roadmap.†But then, the following ominous conversation with company leadership occurs, the filing alleges: “Adcock and Edelberg expressed a dislike of written product requirements, which Plaintiff responded to by indicating that their stance was abnormal in the field of machinery safety and of concern to him as Head of Product Safety.†In the filing, the heads of the company frequently come across as dismissive of the safety officer they themselves hired. The company’s vice president of commercial allegedly says at one point that Gruendel’s safety mandates would be ignored because the CEO “would shoot us if we did it.†At the start of 2025, the pressure on Gruendel seems to intensify when Adcock, the CEO, supposedly asks Gruendel “what it would take to put Figure robots in the home.†Per the suit, Gruendel, concerned about the robot’s power, and the unpredictability of the AI at its core, designs another “roadmap,†publishes it internally, and holds a meeting about it that the CEO skips. So, allegedly, Gruendel writes a condensed version and sends it to the CEO, but is ignored. Investors allegedly see a fairly comprehensive safety plan, which they like, after which company leadership downgrades it, an action Gruendel flags to leaders, according to the suit, saying it “could be interpreted as fraudulent.†Then things get really cinematic in the lead-up to Gruendel’s September 2025 firing. In July, Gruendel conducts safety tests involving just how hard the robot can hit, the suit says. â€During the impact test, [the robot moves] at super-human speed,†and generates force “twenty times higher than the threshold of pain.†According to Gruendel’s calculations, it produces “more than twice the force necessary to fracture an adult human skull.†The next day, according to the suit, the company’s vice president of growth gets in touch with Gruendel to tell him he had just received a raise in the amount of $10,000 per year with an admiring note about Gruendel’s “continued growth and impact at Figure.†The supposed note also acknowledges Gruendel’s “consistent effort,†and “positive mindset.†Fresh from receiving his raise, and apparently undeterred, he sends a Slack message to the CEO, saying the robot could inflict “severe permanent injury on humans,†only to be ignored again, the suit alleges. So the suit says he tries the chief engineer, telling him Figure needs to take “immediate action to distance personnel from the robots.†Gruendel starts worrying, the suit says, that near-misses are occurring, and that there’s no system in place to track them. And then: â€This conclusion was further evidenced by an instance where an employee was standing next to [a robot] and the [robot] malfunctioned and punched a refrigerator, narrowly missing the employee. The robot left a ¼-inch deep gash in the refrigerator's stainless-steel door.†So Gruendel, as depicted in the suit, seems to pour everything into getting an emergency stop button added to the robot system in the workplace in order to protect the employees who have to be near it. The company seems to cooperate with the effort, and then more or less abandon it, the suit alleges. Also, a safety feature allegedly gets axed around this time because someone doesn’t like how it looks. Between mid August and early September, the suit alleges that Gruendel’s authority within the company degrades, and he’s finally fired by the same guy who had praised him and given him a raise earlier that summer. You can read the whole filing for yourself here. As CNBC notes, Figure’s valuation has grown 15-fold since last year when it received capital injections from Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, and Microsoft. A funding round this year from Parkway Venture Capital places the company’s value at $39 billion. As evidenced by the viral reaction to the more recent Neo robot from 1x technologies, there seems to be a race to bring household humanoid robots to market. And there are, of course, bubble concerns accompanying this gold rush-style corporate mindset. In September, roboticist and iRobot founder Rodney Brooks wrote an essay claiming that “today’s humanoid robots will not learn how to be dexterous despite the hundreds of millions, or perhaps many billions of dollars, being donated by VCs and major tech companies to pay for their training.â€Â Gizmodo reached out to Figure for additional comments about the allegations in this suit, and will update if we hear back.Â

Figure robot hand could 'fracture a human skull,' whistleblower warns

One of the top humanoid robot firms, California-based Figure AI, has been sued by its former head of product safety. Robert Gruendel claims he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company's machines were capable of causing severe physical harm. The complaint, filed in California, alleges that Figure fired the engineer, days after he delivered what he described as his "most direct and documented safety complaints." According to the lawsuit, Gruendel warned CEO Brett Adcock and chief engineer Kyle Edelberg that the company's robots were "powerful enough to fracture a human skull," citing an incident in which one of the robots allegedly "carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction." The legal filing says his concerns were dismissed and "treated as obstacles, not obligations," before he was told he was being let go for a "vague 'change in business direction." In a CNBC report, a Figure spokesperson disputed those claims by email, saying Gruendel was "terminated for poor performance" and that his "allegations are falsehoods that Figure will thoroughly discredit in court." Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory, and punitive damages, as well as a jury trial. His attorney, Robert Ottinger, told CNBC that "California law protects employees who report unsafe practices," adding that the case may be "among the first whistleblower cases related to the safety of humanoid robots." He said his client hopes the judicial process will reveal "the clear danger this rush to market approach presents to the public."

Whistleblower Says He Was Fired for Warning Execs That New Robot Could Crush Human Skull

A former engineer at the humanoid robotics firm Figure AI has sued the company, alleging they were fired for raising a critical safety issue, CNBC reports. The principal robotic safety engineer, Robert Gruendel, had warned top executives in September -- including CEO Brett Adcock and chief engineer Kyle Edelberg -- that the robots "were powerful enough to fracture a human skull," according to the suit, which was filed Friday in a federal court in California. It sounds like he had compelling evidence. In a harrowing close call, one robot narrowly missed striking an employee when it suddenly malfunctioned and punched a refrigerator, leaving a "¼-inch deep gash" in the appliance's "stainless-steel door," the suit claims. Days after raising these issues with Adcock and Edelberg, Gruendel was fired. The lawsuit comes as Figure continues to cement its place as a leader in the humanoid robotics industry, which is currently riding high on a lot of yet-to-be fulfilled potential. Morgan Stanley estimated that androids could be a $5 trillion market by 2050, and it's this enthusiasm that fueled Figure's $39 billion valuation during a funding round in September, with major investments coming from Parkway Venture Capital and ever-present AI financier Nvidia. Long before the firing, Gruendel alleges that he was slowly iced out by Adcock, who took less and less frequent meetings with him; weekly safety meetings became bi-weekly, then monthly, then quarterly. On several occasions, Gruendel says messages he sent to Adcock about safety issues went unanswered. Edelberg, meanwhile, had gutted an "unchangeable" safety roadmap that Gruendel had shown to investors this summer, even though the product's safety plan contributed to their decision to invest, the suit argued. After this setback, Gruendel conducted impact testing with the company's Figure 02 (F.02) robot, its second latest model which has already seen action in real industrial settings. This month, Figure announced that its F.02 bots had completed an 11 month long deployment at a BMW plant in the US, where it worked on an assembly line and supposedly contributed to the production of over 30,000 cars. Gruendel claims that the robots could be inflicting serious injuries. During the tests, the bot moved at "super-human speed," creating impacts that were measured to be "twenty times higher than the threshold of pain." Gruendel also estimated that the force F.02 generated "to be approximately more than twice the force necessary to fracture an adult human skull." He also claims he wasn't the only employee worried about these risks. After creating a survey where workers could anonymously report safety issues, injuries, and near-misses with the robots, some employees had instead "begun expressing their safety concerns directly" to Gruendel. But these, evidently, weren't taken seriously by higher ups, according to the suit. In one particularly telling episode in August, Gruendel discovered that a safety feature of F.02 was removed because the principal engineer, Edelberg, "did not like the aesthetic appearance" of it. Those on the cutting edge of autonomous machinery can often play fast and loose with safety in the name of progress -- just look at the rapid deployment of robotaxis and self-driving cars, despite the technology being far from perfect. But humanoid robots come with unique risks since they are designed to work alongside humans in industrial settings, or even live alongside them in the home. "This case involves important and emerging issues, and may be among the first whistleblower cases related to the safety of humanoid robots," Robert Ottinger, Gruendel's attorney, told CNBC. "Mr. Gruendel looks forward to the judicial process exposing the clear danger this rush to market approach presents to the public." Figure has denied the allegations. In an email to CNBC, a spokesperson said Gruendel was "terminated for poor performance," and that his "allegations are falsehoods that Figure will thoroughly discredit in court."

Nvidia-Backed Figure AI Sued By Former Safety Engineer Claiming Dangerous Robots And Fraudulent Cuts To Safety Plan - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

A former safety leader at Figure AI has alleged that he was fired after warning executives that the company's humanoid robots posed serious risks and that key safety measures were weakened after a major funding round. Former Safety Head Says Robots Could Cause Fatal Injuries Backed by Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Figure AI is facing a federal whistleblower lawsuit from Robert Gruendel, the company's former head of product safety. Gruendel claims he was terminated shortly after raising alarms about the strength and potential hazards of its humanoid robots. He alleged that the machines were capable of causing severe harm, including generating enough force to crack a human skull, and says one malfunction left a noticeable cut in a steel refrigerator door. He argues his warnings were dismissed as inconvenient rather than essential. See Also: Jensen Huang Says Being A CEO Is About 'Sacrifice': Nvidia Chief Credits His Mother For Preparing Him For The Road Ahead: She Told Me I Was 'Special' Lawsuit Claims Safety Roadmap Was Softened For Investors Gruendel further claims executives diluted a detailed safety roadmap he had prepared for prospective investors who later helped secure a valuation of roughly $39 billion. He says the plan he presented was later "gutted," a move he believes could mislead backers about the company's readiness and compliance. Company Denies Retaliation, Cites Performance Issues Figure AI disputes the allegations, saying Gruendel was dismissed for poor performance and that his claims misrepresent the company's work, as reported by CNBC. The AI startup did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comments. His attorney countered that California law protects employees who report unsafe practices and said the case highlights emerging concerns around the rapid commercialization of humanoid robots. Nvidia scores in the 98th percentile for Growth and the 92nd percentile for Quality in Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings. See how it compares to other stocks here. Read Next: David Tepper's Hedge Funds Bets On AMD, Nvidia In Q3, Takes Profits On Intel Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Image via Shutterstock MSFTMicrosoft Corp$473.500.29%OverviewNVDANVIDIA Corp$180.050.65%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Engineer Accuses Firm of Firing Him for Warning of AI Robot's 'Superhuman Speed' and Ability To Inflict 'Severe Permanent Injury' on Humans

The lawsuit says his safety concerns were ignored by executives. A fired safety engineer is suing his former employer, Figure AI, alleging he was retaliated against for warning that the company is rushing to produce AI-powered robots with "superhuman speed" and the ability to inflict "severe" injuries on humans. The former safety engineer, Robert Gruendel, filed a federal lawsuit in California, claiming that he was retaliated against for raising concerns that the company was "rush[ing] a potentially dangerous humanoid robot to market." The complaint says that Mr. Gruendel was hired in 2024 to lead Figure AI's product safety program. The company is developing "general-purpose humanoid robots for use in the home and workplace." Figure AI says its robots are "human-shaped and AI-powered" and are designed to handle "household tasks the way you would." However, Mr. Gruendel warns that they could cause their owners "permanent" and "severe" injury. Mr. Gruendel says he was tasked with developing a "home safety roadmap" to identify "relevant safety standards, critical legal risks, and regulatory requirements" before the robots go on the market. The engineer conducted a series of tests, including one in which Figure's F.02 robot was programmed to "hit at its strongest capacity." "During the impact test, F.02 moved at superhuman speed and the impact meter measured forces that were twenty times higher than the threshold of pain," the lawsuit says. "Plaintiff estimated the force generated by F.02 to be approximately more than twice the force necessary to fracture an adult human skull." However, Mr. Gruendel says that his messages expressing his concerns that the robots could inflict "severe permanent injury on humans" were ignored by the company's chief executive officer, Brett Adcock. Mr. Gruendel also says he sent a message to the company's chief engineer, Kyle Edelberg, warning that the company "needed to take immediate action to distance personnel from the robots." "This conclusion was further evidenced by an instance where an employee was standing next to an F.02 and the F.02 malfunctioned and punched a refrigerator, narrowly missing the employee. The robot left a ¼-inch deep gash in the refrigerator's stainless-steel door," the lawsuit says. The lawsuit says that Mr. Gruendel's safety concerns were treated as "obstacles, not obligations." Mr. Gruendel's complaint alleges that "just four days" after he warned of the "robots' high risks to employees during a safety training meeting," and weeks after he submitted written complaints about the robots, he was "summoned to a surprise meeting" and fired. The company said his termination was due to a "change in business direction." However, the plaintiff's attorneys allege the reasoning was pretextual, as executives had praised their client weeks before the meeting, and "no other senior leaders in comparable roles were terminated." Figure AI said in a statement that Mr. Gruendel was "terminated for poor performance" and that his "allegations are falsehoods that Figure will thoroughly discredit in court."

Engineer says he was fired after warning Figure AI's robot could 'fracture a human skull' - VnExpress International

A former head of product safety at Figure AI is suing the company for wrongful termination after warning executives that its robots "were powerful enough to fracture a human skull." Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, filed the lawsuit in a federal court in the Northern District of California on Nov. 21. The suit was filed two months after the U.S. robotics firm was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. This valuation marked a 15-fold increase from early 2024, when the company secured investments from major backers, including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft. Gruendel's attorney Robert Ottinger asserts that he was fired in September, just days after warning CEO Brett Adcock and chief engineer Kyle Edelberg in a safety complaint about the robot's potential to cause harm. According to the lawsuit, Gruendel described an incident where one of the robots "had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction," CNBC reported. The complaint further states that Gruendel had advised the company's leadership against reducing or shortening the safety timeline he had presented to then two potential investors. Gruendel raised concerns that the product safety plan, which had played a role in securing the investment, was "gutted" when Figure AI closed its funding round that same month. His concerns were treated as obstacles rather than obligations, and that the company provided a vague "change in business direction" as the reason for his termination, according to the suit. He is seeking economic, compensatory, and punitive damages, as well as a jury trial. Ottinger, noted that this could be one of the first lawsuits focusing on the safety of humanoid robots and anticipated that the legal process would highlight the risks posed to the public when companies rush to market with untested products. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Figure AI defended the firing, stating that Gruendel was dismissed due to "poor performance" and insisted that the allegations would be refuted in court. In October, Figure AI introduced its third-generation humanoid robot, Figure 03, designed for household chores, though it is not yet available to consumers. Figure AI founder Adcock, in an interview with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff at the Dreamforce conference that same month, expressed excitement about a future where robots could "build themselves" and "colonize the galaxy," as reported by Business Insider. Figure AI faces strong competition from Tesla, which is developing its own humanoid robot, Optimus. The first prototype was showcased at Tesla's AI Day in 2022, and CEO Elon Musk has stated that the robot will be ready for commercial release in late 2025 or 2026.