Figure AI sued by its fired head of product safety, who says he warned that its humanoid robots could ‘fracture a human skull’
Partly confirmed
Status
- Claim
Partly confirmed
- Our reporting
- Medium confidence
- Importance
- 2 of 5
- Last verified
- 14 October 2026
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Key facts
- Filed Friday Nov 21, 2025, N.D. Cal.; first reported by CNBC; seeks economic, compensatory and punitive damages and a jury trial
- Allegations: he warned CEO Brett Adcock and chief engineer Kyle Edelberg that the robots ‘were powerful enough to fracture a human skull’; a malfunctioning robot cut a quarter-inch gash in a steel refrigerator door; the product-safety plan shown to prospective investors was weakened after a funding round closed, which he says could be read as misleading investors
- Timing: filed two months after Figure was valued at $39B in a round led by Parkway Venture Capital, about 15 times its early-2024 valuation
- Figure’s response (spokesperson): Gruendel was terminated for poor performance; his allegations are falsehoods the company will discredit in court
- Status: searches on Oct 14, 2026 found no 2026 rulings or settlement; the case resurfaced in October 2026 coverage (Startup Fortune, Oct 13) amid the debate on home humanoids
What happened
Robert Gruendel was Figure AI’s principal robotic safety engineer (described in coverage as its head of product safety). His complaint, filed in federal court in California on Nov 21, 2025, says he was dismissed in September 2025, days after his most direct written safety complaints to the CEO and chief engineer. It describes a robot malfunction that gouged a steel refrigerator door and claims the company dropped parts of a documented safety plan after it had been presented to investors. Figure denies the claims.
Why it matters
It is the first public whistleblower case about the physical danger of a leading humanoid robot, at a time when Figure and others were promising home deployment. It is a pre-cutoff backfill: the case was cited again in October 2026 and had no entry.
Sources
3 sources from 3 sites. Numbers match the chips in the text.
3 sources: 3 press
Press
- OODA Loop (Nov 24, 2025), summarizing CNBC: Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup’s robots could ‘fracture a human skull’oodaloop.com, press
- CNBC: Figure AI sued (original report; blocked for our fetcher)cnbc.com, press
- Cryptopolitan: Whistleblower claims Figure AI fired him for warning their humanoid robot could killcryptopolitan.com, press
Changes
- Filed (read OODA Loop’s summary of CNBC and other coverage; CNBC itself returned 403; the 2026 docket was not checked)