Figure AI's California Plant Deploys More Robots Than Human Workers

A California factory owned by Figure AI now employs 750 robots compared with 250 human staff, a ratio that the company says is unprecedented in industry. The plant produces the Figure 03 humanoid robot at a rate of one unit per hour, with the robot capable of sorting packages, loading automotive parts and climbing stairs without human assistance. Similar robots have already operated for 11 months at BMW's South Carolina plant, helping to build over 30,000 vehicles and move 90,000 metal parts. Boston Dynamics has introduced a commercial version of its Atlas robot, which can carry up to 50 kg and autonomously replace its own batteries, with orders from Hyundai and Google DeepMind. Hyundai is also expanding production to assemble 300 Atlas units annually. Additional developments include a school‑deployment of emotion‑reading robots in New York and a home‑assistant robot called Neo, priced at $20,000. These rapid advances illustrate a shift from experimental prototypes to large‑scale, profit‑driven robot deployment across manufacturing and consumer markets.