Agility’s Digit has the clearest evidence of repeat commercial demand among these three robots. On October 26, GXO and Agility announced plans to expand to two additional warehouses after working together at Flowery Branch, Georgia. The new deployments are expected in early 2027, so they cannot yet be counted as operating sites.
Digit: the customer wants more
GXO confirms that Digit has moved more than 100,000 totes at Flowery Branch under the companies’ commercial relationship. The task is specific: moving totes and placing them onto conveyors alongside existing automation.
The planned additions in Statesville, North Carolina, and Lebanon, Tennessee, strengthen the case for continued customer demand. They do not establish that humanoids have become economical at scale.
In August, GXO CEO Patrick Kelleher described its humanoids as pilots and said they had not achieved a return on investment. October’s expansion announcement provides no new ROI calculation. The customer is committing to further use while the financial payoff remains unproven in the reviewed disclosures.
Figure: factory work with numbers behind it
BMW confirms that Figure 02 moved more than 90,000 components in around 1,250 operating hours during its completed 2025 pilot. It positioned sheet-metal parts for welding and supported production of more than 30,000 BMW X3s. Those vehicles were produced by the factory; Figure performed one defined step.
The relationship has continued. August reporting, including BMW’s comments, describes Figure 03 being tested on sorting incoming components into sequencing trolleys at Spartanburg. That is a different task and robot generation. The earlier output totals cannot be credited to Figure 03, and the newer report supplies no comparable completed-task total.
Optimus: a manufacturing milestone
Tesla’s Q3 2026 update says its first production-quality Optimus robots are coming off lines in Fremont. It lists California robotics manufacturing as “Early Ramp” and Texas as “Construction.”
That matters for Tesla’s ability to supply robots. The disclosure, however, gives no comparable external-customer task count, operating hours or measured human-assistance rate. Building robots and proving their value through repeated customer work remain separate milestones.
The missing comparison: human help
Digit’s work is not evidence of zero human support. In March, Futurism, citing Wall Street Journal reporting, described a separate Schaeffler installation where a human contractor watched Digit work. Supervision alone does not reveal how often someone intervened.
Figure’s BMW account identifies zero human interventions per shift as a goal, but does not publish the achieved intervention rate. Tesla’s latest update offers no equivalent shift-level record. The reviewed sources therefore cannot establish which system needs the least human help.
For investors and buyers, 100,000 tote moves cannot be ranked directly against 90,000 components. Tasks, periods and operating conditions differ. The useful comparison is accepted output per shift, human support required and total cost.
Our assessment: Digit leads on repeat commercial demand; Figure has substantial customer-confirmed factory work; Optimus needs comparable operating proof. A stronger verdict requires customers to disclose how much useful work these robots deliver after supervision, resets and downtime are counted.
Sources
- GXO Logistics and Agility Robotics, “GXO and Agility Robotics Expand Partnership to Accelerate Deployment of Humanoids in U.S. Operations”
Source type: Tier 1, direct or official evidence for GXO’s own activity. Joint customer and supplier announcement, company-controlled. Published October 26, 2026; added sites expected in early 2027.
https://investors.gxo.com/news-releases/news-release-details/gxo-and-agility-robotics-expand-partnership-accelerate - The Motley Fool, “GXO (GXO) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript”
Source type: Tier 3, detailed first-party disclosure through a third-party-hosted transcript of executive statements. Customer statements about GXO’s programs; not an independent performance audit. Call dated August 5, 2026; transcript URL dated August 11, 2026.
https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/08/11/gxo-gxo-q2-2026-earnings-call-transcript/ - BMW Group, “BMW Group to deploy humanoid robots in production in Germany for the first time”
Source type: Tier 1, direct or official evidence. Company-controlled customer confirmation. Published February 27, 2026; cited results concern the completed 2025 Figure 02 pilot.
https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0455864EN/ - Automotive Logistics, “Figuring out humanoid logistics at Spartanburg”
Source type: Tier 2, strong independent evidence. Reporting includes direct BMW spokesperson comments, alongside attributed Figure claims. Published August 25, 2026.
https://www.automotivelogistics.media/news-and-features/figuring-out-humanoid-logistics-at-spartanburg/2725217 - Tesla, “Q3 2026 Update,” page 6
Source type: Tier 3, detailed first-party disclosure. Company-controlled investor presentation. Released October 21, 2026.
https://assets-ir.tesla.com/tesla-contents/IR/TSLA-Q3-2026-Update.pdf - Futurism, “Factory Paying Human Worker to Watch Robot Worker All Day”
Source type: Tier 2, strong independent evidence, used with a secondary-source limitation. Published March 17, 2026 and explicitly attributing the site observation to The Wall Street Journal. Not counted as separate corroboration of that reporting; the underlying Journal article’s full body was not accessible in this review.
https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/robot-worker-factory-digit - Figure, “F.02 Contributed to the Production of 30,000 Cars at BMW”
Source type: Tier 3, detailed first-party disclosure. Company-controlled operating account. Published November 19, 2025. Intervention targets are distinguished from achieved results.
https://www.figure.ai/news/production-at-bmw