1X's NEO, The Home Robot, Fails to Impress But It is Progress For Home Humanoid Robot Assistants

1X's NEO, The Home Robot, Tends some Plants.
Image: 1X website.

Just over a year ago I wrote about new robotics start up, 1X and their Plans to Build 100,000 Humanoids by 2027 in the form of their NEO Home Robot household assistant.

About a year later and NEO has undergone a bit of a makeover, and you can pre-order your own NEO in one of three stylish colours, for delivery some time in 2026.

At USD$20,000.00 the price is a bit of buzz kill but 1X does offer a $499 monthly subscription plan as an alternative.

Unfortunately the launch hasn't been the show stopper 1X might have hoped for because NEO isn't a fully realised, autonomous robot just yet.

While it can learn to do tasks around your home autonomously, there's a bit of a learning curve between when you first receive it, and when it actually becomes useful in a meaningful way.

Which was not helped by a video released on The Wall Street Journal's YouTube channel, I Tried the First Humanoid Home Robot. It Got Weird. | WSJ, where the robot was tested by reporter, Joanna Stern.

In the video (below) it is revealed that nearly every task the robot is doing is being controlled by a remote operator in another room. This is actually a feature of the robot that is used to train it in new tasks, so that it will be able to perform them autonomously in the future. You'll actually be able to schedule a remote operator to train your NEO. Note that remote operators cannot just start controlling your NEO without your consent (at least that's what 1X says).

The problem with this video is, not so much that most of the time the robot is being remotely controlled, but that the robot still struggles to do the most basic of tasks under human control. Making me wonder if the human controller needs more training too?

NEO's limitations caught the eye of YouTube's top tech reviewer, Marques Brownlee, who was equally unimpressed releasing his video, The Problem with this Humanoid Robot. In it, Marques highlights the divide between what 1X says the robot can do compared to the reality of what it actually can do right now.

If that wasn't enough, The Daily Show's, Ronny Chieng, featured a segment on NEO during the show, that also highlighted NEO's limitations (and lack of holes). Ronny Chieng Meets Neo, the World’s Stupidest Robot Maid | The Daily Show

However, despite the public criticisms, humanoid robot assistants in the home have to start somewhere. It's very complicated being a human. It's even more complicated to simulate an approximation of a human that can autonomously be extremely helpful to a human.

While we may currently poke fun at these early days of humanoid robots in the home, it is a few steps closer to achieving the often cited quote:

"I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do laundry and dishes"

— Joanna Maciejewska

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