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

See Full Page