And less than 24 hours after the Tesla showed a video breaking its personal race record (if you want to see it, go to my previous post), the also North American Figure AI published its own response, an almost challenging short straight sprint, revealing that the dispute over athletic mobility has now become public and technical. After the Tesla video went viral, a user mentioned Brett Adcock, founder of Figure, with a simple your turn.

The provocation was not going to go unanswered, Brett Adcock, founder of Figure, immediately released a recording of figure 03 crossing the laboratory and moving back and forth, alternating acceleration, braking and changing direction with surprising fluidity and in this case we even have ambient sound.

The community noted the naturalness of the gestures, one comment stated that the robot looked like a type of suit, Brett Adcock took advantage of the observation to highlight the advance in the logic of action and control, the difference between human movement and robotic movement, according to him, is decreasing rapidly and irreversibly.

The video does not just show speed, it shows technique, just as in the Optimus, Figure 03 exhibits an evident flight phase, the moment in which both feet leave the ground simultaneously, characterizing a true race, for a humanoid, that requires high torque, predictive stability and an architecture capable of handling dynamic instability without failures.

Comparing the two videos directly is still impracticable, the Tesla ran in a straight line, Figure 03 performed only short sprints, with no room to reach maximum speed and no telemetry disclosed, even so, visually it does not seem very distant from the pace of the Optimus and the agility in fast corners emerges a mature control system, capable of compensating lateral forces and redistributing weight quickly.

This quick answer also reveals the strategy behind the design of the new model, Figure 03 was redesigned in October with a focus on large-scale production and lighter materials, which improves the power-to-weight ratio and expands its dynamic capabilities. Less inertia means faster accelerations. Exactly what the video shows.

For years, companies like Boston Dynamics, Unitree and Engine AI set the pace for bipedal agility, now Tesla and Figure show that they are reaching that athletic level, what do you think, China is still ahead with their humanoids or Tesla and Figure are already at the same level, I think they haven't reached it yet, but they are moving very quickly in this dispute.