Humanoids Cost as Much as an SUV Now | Nikhil Kamath x Brett Adcock | WTF Online Ep 2

In this talk

1. 1:17

   From electric aircraft to humanoids

   Adcock describes his path from software company Vettery to electric aircraft maker Archer and then Figure. He sees humanoid robots as a general-purpose machine because homes, workplaces, and tools are designed around human bodies.

2. 10:32

   What it takes to make a robot work

   Figure builds much of its robots’ hardware and software in-house, including motors, sensors, batteries, and AI. Adcock says the robots use onboard compute for fast movement and balance, while neural networks help manage tasks with many possible body positions. Figure had also been running robots at a BMW site for daily production work.

3. 36:08

   Learning tasks across a robot fleet

   Adcock says Figure combines information from its robots to train shared models, so learning from one task can improve performance on others. He describes this as especially useful for general-purpose work and says human demonstrations can help robots navigate homes and handle unfamiliar objects.

4. 41:52

   Safety, homes, and the road to adoption

   Adcock says he has tested a robot at home with his children present, but under supervision; he would not yet leave it operating alone with young kids. He sees home use as increasingly feasible but says long-running, reliable autonomy still needs work. Figure is collecting data in homes to improve its Helix system.

5. 1:11:23

   The business and labor outlook

   Adcock expects AI and robots to change work over years, with humanoids eventually taking on tasks in homes and businesses. He argues that a company’s advantage will come from combining strong hardware, AI, and integration, and says founders can find opportunities in robotics data, compute, components, and other supply-chain needs.