Figure stands out among its rivals because it is overtly targeting putting robots in the home—a domain that many of its competitors believe is still many years away. As the halting demonstration of towel folding during TIME’s August visit showed, the challenges remain very real. Another demo, intended to show robots loading laundry into a washer-dryer, meets a similar hitch twice in a row, when a Figure 02 drops a piece of laundry on the floor and is unable to pick it up. (On the third try, it successfully loads the washer without dropping anything.) At launch, the Figure 03 won’t actually be ready for domestic use. “We want the robot to be able to do most things in your home, autonomously, all day,” Adcock says. “We’re not there yet. We think we can get there in 2026, but it’s a big push.” Before that, it will be made available to a select list of Figure’s partners for testing. Nevertheless, Figure is focusing much of the marketing around the 03’s launch on domestic settings. In September, TIME witnessed the Figure 03 successfully load items into a dishwasher and clear clutter from a table. It had more trouble when faced with folding T-shirts.
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Figure stands out among its rivals because it is overtly targeting putting robots in the home—a domain that many of its competitors believe is still many years away. As the halting demonstration of towel folding during TIME’s August visit showed, the challenges remain very real. Another demo, intended to show robots loading laundry into a washer-dryer, meets a similar hitch twice in a row, when a Figure 02 drops a piece of laundry on the floor and is unable to pick it up. (On the third try, it successfully loads the washer without dropping anything.) At launch, the Figure 03 won’t actually be ready for domestic use. “We want the robot to be able to do most things in your home, autonomously, all day,” Adcock says. “We’re not there yet. We think we can get there in 2026, but it’s a big push.” Before that, it will be made available to a select list of Figure’s partners for testing. Nevertheless, Figure is focusing much of the marketing around the 03’s launch on domestic settings. In September, TIME witnessed the Figure 03 successfully load items into a dishwasher and clear clutter from a table. It had more trouble when faced with folding T-shirts.