Figure AI Faces Whistleblower Lawsuit Over Robot Safety Concerns

Whistleblower Allegations Rock Figure AI

Figure AI, the Nvidia-backed humanoid robotics startup, faces a federal lawsuit from its former head of product safety who claims he was wrongfully terminated after raising critical safety concerns about the company's robots. Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, filed the suit Friday in California's Northern District, alleging that Figure's humanoid robots possess dangerous capabilities that company executives chose to ignore 1

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Gruendel's attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, just days after lodging his "most direct and documented safety complaints" to company leadership 2

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. The timing of his termination, coming so soon after his safety warnings, forms the crux of his retaliation claim.

Skull-Fracturing Capabilities and Safety Incidents

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" 3

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. The complaint details a particularly alarming incident where one robot "carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction," demonstrating the machines' destructive potential 4

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Gruendel conducted impact testing on Figure's 02 model robot, discovering that the machine moved at "super-human speed" and generated force "twenty times higher than the threshold of pain." His calculations indicated the robot produced "more than twice the force necessary to fracture an adult human skull" 5

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. These findings came from testing conducted in July, just months before his termination.

Company Response and Safety Culture Concerns

The lawsuit paints a picture of a company culture that allegedly treated safety concerns as inconveniences rather than critical obligations. Gruendel claims his warnings were consistently ignored, with CEO Adcock reportedly skipping safety meetings and failing to respond to direct messages about safety issues 3

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Particularly troubling, according to the suit, was an incident where a safety feature was removed from the F.02 robot because chief engineer Edelberg "did not like the aesthetic appearance" of it . The complaint also alleges that Figure had "no formal safety procedures, incident-reporting systems, or risk-assessment processes for the robots" when Gruendel joined the company.

Investment and Valuation Concerns

The lawsuit raises serious questions about Figure's interactions with investors. Gruendel alleges he was asked to prepare a safety roadmap for presentation to prospective investors, but warned executives not to "downgrade" his work 1

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. The complaint claims that a comprehensive safety plan shown to investors was subsequently "gutted" in the same month Figure closed a major investment round, a move Gruendel believed "could be interpreted as fraudulent."

This timing is particularly significant given Figure's remarkable valuation trajectory. The company was valued at $39 billion in a September funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital, representing a 15-fold increase from early 2024 when it raised funds from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft 2

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Figure AI's Defense and Industry Context

Figure AI has strongly disputed Gruendel's allegations, with a company spokesperson telling CNBC that he was "terminated for poor performance" and that his "allegations are falsehoods that Figure will thoroughly discredit in court" 4

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. The company maintains that the termination was based on legitimate performance issues rather than retaliation for safety concerns.

The case emerges as the humanoid robot market experiences rapid growth and investment. Companies like Tesla, Boston Dynamics, and China's Unitree Robotics are all pursuing similar technologies, while Morgan Stanley projects the market could exceed $5 trillion by 2050 1

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. Figure has already deployed its robots in real-world industrial settings, with F.02 models completing an 11-month deployment at a BMW plant where they reportedly contributed to producing over 30,000 cars.

Gruendel's attorney, Robert Ottinger, told CNBC that "this case involves important and emerging issues, and may be among the first whistleblower cases related to the safety of humanoid robots." He emphasized that the case could expose "the clear danger this rush to market approach presents to the public" 5

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