Whistleblower Alleges Figure AI Fired Him For Raising Safety Concerns Over Humanoid Robots

In the rapidly evolving field of humanoid robotics, concerns about safety and potential risks to humans have come to the forefront. Robert Gruendel, a former principal robotic safety engineer at Figure AI, claims he was fired after warning company executives about the critical risk of injury from their robots. According to Gruendel’s lawsuit, filed in a federal court in California, he informed top executives, including CEO Brett Adcock and chief engineer Kyle Edelberg, that the company’s robots “were powerful enough to fracture a human skull.” Gruendel’s allegations are substantiated by an incident where one of the robots, during a malfunction, narrowly missed hitting an employee and “carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door.” He also stated that his emails to Adcock about safety issues went unanswered on several occasions.

Gruendel claims that the frequency of safety meetings was gradually reduced, from weekly to quarterly meetings, long before his termination. Figure AI, a leading company in the humanoid robot industry, has recently reached a valuation of $39 billion, following significant investments led by Parkway Venture Capital and Nvidia. As reported by AS USA, this valuation represents a substantial increase, with the company now being 15 times more valuable than it was in early 2024.