"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."
"The lawsuit comes as Figure continues to cement its place as a leader in the humanoid robotics industry, which is currently riding high on a lot of yet-to-be fulfilled potential. Morgan Stanley estimated that androids could be a $5 trillion market by 2050, and it's this enthusiasm that fueled Figure's $39 billion valuation during a funding round in September, with major investments coming from Parkway Venture Capital and ever-present AI financier Nvidia."
A former Figure AI principal robotic safety engineer, Robert Gruendel, warned top executives in September that the robots "were powerful enough to fracture a human skull." One robot narrowly missed striking an employee when it malfunctioned and punched a refrigerator, leaving a ¼-inch deep gash in the appliance's stainless-steel door. Days after raising these safety concerns with CEO Brett Adcock and chief engineer Kyle Edelberg, Gruendel was fired. Gruendel alleges that Adcock reduced meetings and that weekly safety meetings were downgraded to quarterly. Gruendel also alleges that Edelberg removed an 'unchangeable' safety roadmap that influenced investor decisions.
Read at Futurism
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]