Arnold Schwarzenegger has helped send a fleet of humanoid robots to a fiery retirement, teaming up with Figure for a real-life Terminator 2 send-off.
The actor appears in the company’s F.02 Decommission film, bringing a familiar face to the destruction of its older machines. Wearing protective gear, Schwarzenegger leads a robot toward the furnace before eventually revealing himself and declaring: “Hasta la vista, Figure 2.”
For once, the Terminator comparisons aren’t just coming from viewers. According to Figure’s September 30 announcement, Schwarzenegger suggested melting the robots after the company asked the internet how to retire them.
Figure taught its robots to jump into molten steel
Figure says its expanding F.03 fleet made maintaining the older machines impractical. However, protecting proprietary hardware ruled out simply disposing of them, while dismantling each robot would take engineers away from developing F.04.
The company has already shown off its Figure 03 performing household chores, including washing dishes and folding clothes. Its predecessor’s final assignment was considerably hotter.
Foundries in the US and Mexico rejected the proposal over the robots’ lithium-ion batteries. Figure eventually found a willing facility in Imatra, Finland.
Before shipping them out, engineers trained the robots to jump onto airbags at their San Jose campus, using stunt performers’ movements as reference.
The final operation involved a 75-ton electric arc furnace. Figure says the robots jumped autonomously into molten steel, indicating that unlike the T800, these robots can self-terminate.
Most of the F.02 fleet is now gone, with a few preserved at headquarters. The recovered metal is being turned into limited-edition keepsakes. Apparently, they’ll be back, just in a much less mobile form.
It adds another unusual chapter to robotics demonstrations that have already included a T800 robot kicking its own company’s CEO and a humanoid being cut open to prove it wasn’t a person in disguise. Figure has now brought in the original Terminator to handle retirement.
And just last month, influencer Frankie LaPenna fought a six-foot-tall robot in the “first Human vs Terminator robot fight,” with the real-life T800 leaving some marks on him.
