Figure AI Retires Humanoid Robots With Terminator-Style Steel Furnace Sendoff

Few cinematic endings are as memorable as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s final minutes in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Now a robotics company has recreated that scene using real humanoid robots, creating an unexpected connection to the automotive industry.

California startup Figure AI recently retired its second-generation Figure 02 humanoid robots. These machines had helped demonstrate how humanoids can operate in factories, including a deployment at BMW’s plant in South Carolina. For the farewell, the retired robots were sent into a steel furnace—a nod to the T-800’s sacrifice—with a Schwarzenegger figure looking on.

The event served as both publicity and a milestone. Figure 02 showed practical factory tasks, while its retirement highlights how quickly humanoid platforms are iterating. For automakers, the BMW deployment offered evidence that humanoids can support production. Figure AI’s sendoff mixed industrial reality with Hollywood symbolism: real robots doing real work, then meeting a deliberately dramatic end. The Terminator imagery may be playful, yet the underlying message is serious: humanoid robots are moving from demos toward factory floors.