BMW contradicts a humanoid claim
A Fortune reporter asked BMW what Figure's robots were doing at its South Carolina plant. By the spokesperson's account a single robot had worked there until March, only in off-hours, and the same robot had since moved the same limited task onto the live line, while Figure's chief executive had written of a fleet in end-to-end operations.
Why it matters
For the first time in the humanoid wave the customer was asked directly, and its answer parted from the maker's public account: one robot, until March only in off-hours, against a fleet in end-to-end operations. This shows what a manufacturer's claim is worth without a number from the buyer.
Jason Del Rey approached BMW in February, after Figure's chief executive Brett Adcock wrote on LinkedIn: "We currently have a fleet of robots performing end-to-end operations." BMW spokesperson Steve Wilson answered then that a single Figure robot worked in the South Carolina plant at any given time, picking up and manoeuvring parts "during non-production hours"; whether there was one robot or several taking turns, he would not say. Very soon, he said, the robot would load parts for short intervals during live production in the body shop, taking them with two hands from a logistics container and placing them onto a fixture. In early March Adcock told a conference: "We actually have them running everyday now." The article of 6 April gives the spokesperson's summary: until March the robot worked only in off-hours, then the same work moved into production hours, but as one robot on one limited task. On 25 April Adcock wrote that his litigation counsel "took action"; the full post could not be read. Later the companies gave their own figures: Figure on 19 November 2025 wrote of an 11-month deployment, 10-hour shifts Monday to Friday and a contribution to more than 30,000 BMW X3, and BMW on 25 June 2026 that Figure 02 supported the production of more than 30,000 X3 over ten months.