The robot stands 5ft 6in tall, weighs as much as a golden retriever and costs almost as much as a new budget car. This Neo, humanoid robot. Billed as a personal assistant you can talk to and ultimately rely on to handle everyday tasks, Neo can load the dishwasher and fold laundry.
But it doesn't come cheap: it will set you back $20,000. And even then, you'll still have to train that new home bot, and it might need remote assistance as well.
Check this out: You can now pre-order Neo, the AI-powered humanoid robot for your home
If that still sounds tempting, pre-orders are now open ($200 value). You'll be an early adopter of what Neo's manufacturer, California-based 1X, calls a “ready-to-consume humanoid.” This is different from other humanoids in development such as Tesla And Figurewhich, at least for now, are more focused on factory settings.
Neo is a whole order of magnitude different from robot vacuum cleaner such as Roomba, Eufy and Ecovacs, and fulfills the long-held sci-fi fantasy of robot maids and butlers. do housework and collects after us. If this is the future, read on to find out more about what's to come.
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What Neo robot can do around the house
Interested in purchasing Neo for your home? You can choose different colors that best suit your interior.
The idea behind 1X is that Neo can do any housework: fold laundry, vacuum, organize shelves, and bring groceries. It can open doors, climb stairs, and even act as a home entertainment system.
Neo appears to move smoothly, with a soft, almost human-like gait, thanks to the 1X tendon propulsion system, which gives him fluid movement and impressive strength. The company says it can lift up to 154 pounds and carry 55 pounds while being quieter than a refrigerator. It's covered in soft materials and neutral colors, making it less intimidating than other companies' metal prototypes.
The company claims that the Neo has a battery life of 4 hours. Its arms are IP68 rated, meaning they can be submerged in water. It can connect via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 5G. For communication, it has a built-in large language model (LLM), the same Artificial Intelligence Technology these are powers ChatGPT And Twins.
The main way to control the Neo robot is to talk to it as if it were a person.
However, Neo's usefulness today largely depends on how you define useful. Joanna Stern of The Wall Street Journal received a close look at Neo at 1X headquarters and found that, at least for now, it is primarily remote controlled, meaning a person often operates it remotely using virtual reality headset and controllers.
“I haven’t seen Neo do anything on his own, although the company has shared a video of Neo opening a door on his own,” Stern wrote last week. 1X CEO Bernt Bernich reportedly told her that Neo will do most things autonomously in 2026, although he also admitted that quality “may lag at first.”
The company's FAQ says that if there's a job request that Neo doesn't know how to complete, you can hire an expert from 1X to help the robot “learn by doing the job.”
What you need to know about Neo and privacy
Part of what early adopters are signing up for is allowing Neo to learn from its environment so that future versions can operate more independently.
This learning process raises questions about privacy and trust. The robot uses a combination of visual, audio and contextual intelligence – meaning it can see, hear and remember interactions with you in your home.
“If you buy this product, it’s because you agree to this social contract,” Burnich told the magazine. “It's not so much about Neo doing your chores instantly, but rather about you helping Neo learn how to do them safely and efficiently.”
Neo's dependence on human actions behind the scenes prompted a reaction from John Carmack, a computer industry luminary known for his work with virtual reality systems and the lead programmer of classic video games including Doom and Quake.
“Companies selling the dream of autonomous humanoid robots in the home today would be better off accepting reality and selling 'remote-controlled home assistance,'” he wrote in his article. publish on social network X.
Neo looks a bit like a deflated Baymax from Big Hero 6.
1X says it takes measures to protect your privacy: Neo only listens when it knows it's being spoken to, and its cameras will blur people. According to the company, you can prevent Neo from entering or viewing certain parts of your home, and the robot will never be controlled remotely without the owner's permission.
But inviting a humanoid equipped with artificial intelligence to observe your home life is not an easy step.
The first devices are expected to ship to customers in the US in 2026. There is a monthly subscription costing US$499 instead of the full purchase price of US$20,000, although it will be available at a later unspecified date. Wider international rollout is promised in 2027.
Neo has a long way to go to live up to the expectations set by Rosie the Robot in The Jetsons way back when. But this is not a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. What we are seeing now is a much more tangible harbinger of change.
