Figure AI says it decommissioned most of its F.02 humanoid-robot fleet by training the machines to jump into a vat of molten steel at a foundry in Imatra, Finland. The company says it chose the dramatic disposal method to protect proprietary hardware and avoid a labor-intensive teardown as it expanded its newer F.03 fleet.
Why Figure says it retired the F.02 fleet
Figure’s September 30, 2026 announcement says the F.02 robots had been part of several milestones, including the company’s first BMW deployment, the birth of its Helix system, its first household-chore robot and its first logistics deployment. But with F.03 production growing, Figure said continuing to maintain the older machines no longer made sense.
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The company also said the F.02 units contained custom actuators and other proprietary technology. Disassembling them would consume staff time and, in Figure’s account, delay work on F.04. Figure described the problem this way: “Decommissioning a fleet of robots full of custom-built actuators and other intellectual property is no easy task.”
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Figure says foundries in the United States and Mexico that it contacted would not accept robots containing lithium-ion batteries in their equipment. It found a willing facility in Imatra, Finland, and chose melting as a way to destroy the machines rather than recover their components through an ordinary teardown. Figure’s account of the F.02 decommissioning
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How the robots were prepared for the foundry
According to Figure, preparation began at its San Jose campus. The company set up large airbags and trained the robots to jump from a building’s second floor. It also trained a new AI model in simulation, using movements by stunt artists as a reference, to guide the robots toward the steel bucket.
Figure says the team then took the robots to the Finnish foundry. The company reports that the operation used a 75-ton electric-arc furnace and involved six melts over 24 hours. Each melt offered a 20-minute window before the molten steel cooled enough to form a crust, according to Figure.
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Those figures and the description of the robots’ behavior come from Figure, not an independent technical audit. The company says its AI policies continued operating amid extreme heat and electromagnetic fields, while camera equipment and other electronics failed.
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Figure says it trained the robots to make the jumps autonomously and says the machines were shipped to Finland and made the leap into the furnace. That is the company’s account of the event. The promotional video and the reporting available from Futurism do not independently verify every technical detail or establish how much human intervention, if any, occurred during the foundry operation. The footage should therefore be read as evidence of the staged public event, not as an independent demonstration of the robots’ autonomy.
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Futurism described the promotional video as nearly four minutes long. Figure’s announcement frames it as a real event, while the company’s own claims remain the source for the training and operational details. Futurism’s report on the stunt
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the scene evokes Terminator 2
The molten-steel disposal was designed to recall Terminator 2: Judgment Day, whose best-known ending features a machine descending into molten metal. Figure says Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed melting the robots and participated in the production. The film reference is part of the stunt’s presentation, not an explanation of the robots’ disposal requirements.
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What remains of the F.02 fleet
Figure says most of the F.02 fleet has been decommissioned, but a few units remain stored at the company’s headquarters. It also says recovered metal is being machined into a limited series of commemorative F.02 artifacts; the announcement does not establish how many will be made or how long they will be available.
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