A former safety engineer at Figure AI, Robert Gruendel, has filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit alleging he was dismissed after warning company leadership in September 2025 that its humanoid robots were “powerful enough to fracture a human skull”, according to a report on VnExpress.
According to the suit filed on November 21 in a US federal court in California, internal “impact testing” on the company’s robot model F.02 generated forces reportedly more than double those required to break an adult skull.
As evidence of danger, the complaint cites an incident in which a robot allegedly malfunctioned and left a three-quarter-inch deep gash in a stainless-steel refrigerator door, according to reporting by Futurism.
Gruendel says he provided a detailed safety roadmap ahead of Figure AI’s recent funding round – but executives “gutted” the safety plan to accelerate deployment and secure investor funding. Days after raising these concerns to senior leadership, he was terminated.
Figure AI has denied wrongdoing. A company spokesperson reportedly said Gruendel was fired for “poor performance”, and that the company intends to dispute the allegations in court.
If the claims are proven, the case could mark one of the first whistleblower lawsuits targeting the safety of humanoid robots.
The legal challenge highlights critical questions about the readiness of powerful robotic systems for deployment in workplaces, and whether current safety and oversight mechanisms are sufficient to protect human workers.
