Figure V. Fortune 🤖🥊🗞️
Got tariffs on the mind? It’s going to take a whole lot to beat China’s manufacturing prowess… The New York Times has a new, photo and video-rich piece, looking at the amazing machines that underpin so much of the country’s industrial might.
Humanoid Maker Figure Threatens Fortune Magazine
Late last week, Brett Adcock, serial entrepreneur and founder of humanoid robotics startup Figure, had some choice words for Fortune Magazine.
At 9am ET this morning, my litigation counsel took action to protect and defend the reputation and the future of Figure for all its stakeholders, and especially its employees and investors who believe in the future of AI and robotics
At first, we were going to ignore the noise, because we are focused on what this company is about: bringing humanoid robots to the masses. But after spending time contemplating whether to ignore or address the egregious inaccuracies and false reporting, I decided that Figure cannot take this lying down and must make sure nothing like this happens again
We knew building one of the most groundbreaking companies on the planet would not be easy, and media would ask questions. What we won’t stand for are the mischaracterizations and downright lies written in the recent Fortune article by Jason Del Rey about Figure’s business and its partnerships. As we informed Fortune today, Figure’s litigation counsel will aggressively pursue all available legal remedies - including, but not limited to, defamation claims - to correct the publication's blatant misstatements
It’s ok for media to be skeptical of what they do not know. It’s not ok to publicize inaccuracies or twist words purely for clickbait
Adcock looks to be referring to a piece, published earlier this month, that claims his startup has exaggerated the state of its technology, as well as its key partnerships with the likes of BMW. The article relies heavily on quotes from BMW itself, with the carmaker’s spokesperson noting items like that just a single Figure bot “at BMW’s South Carolina factory operated only during off-hours, practicing picking up and placing parts in the plant’s body shop.” That would imply a deployment far more modest than Figure’s contention that it had a fleet of robots working on key operations. Adding to the intrigue of this war of words, the original Fortune article was not particularly noticed upon publication; by threatening a suit, the Sunnyvale, CA-based startup may be “Streisand Effect”-ing itself.
Avride Hits 1,300 Deliveries Per Day at OSU
Avride’s delivery robotics deployment at The Ohio State University is picking up steam. Avride’s 112 bots are delivering between 1,200 and 1,300 orders per day, and have made 80,000 dropoffs since January. That’s about the same pace as Cartken’s, which previously held the OSU contract, and was doing 1,100 daily orders back in December.
Pony.ai Unveils 7th Generation Platform
Chinese AV heavyweight Pony.ai has unveiled the seventh generation of its autonomous vehicle platform, with mass-production scheduled for mid-year. “2025 marks the inaugural year of Pony.ai’s mass-produced robotaxis,” noted Dr. James Peng, Co-Founder and CEO of Pony.ai. The robotaxi operator claims its new system reduces its bill-of-materials costs by 70%, while lowering computation power requirements by 80%.
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