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

Comments

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de...

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch...

Momentary pauses in cyberspace... Why Leave a Comment If You Have No Intention of Coming Back?

Different Stands Out Mug by TET. View on RedBubble . I got to thinking about blogs and the fact that anyone can leave a comment to my posts. When someone comments, the polite thing to do is to respond with a comment under theirs. This may prompt an additional comment but really that person has no real intention of in depth discussion. They're just passing through. It's a lot like walking down the street with a complete stranger approaching from the opposite direction. Your intention is to simply pass them by but as you come within talking distance the stranger says "Hi, nice day isn't it?" Like they needed to share that little highlight of information to brighten your day too. You can smile and nod in agreement, or go so far as to say "Yes isn't it," whilst passing by without so much as a break in stride. It's all that is required to be polite. Sometimes though, you want a bit more from your stranger. Why did they decide to say 'Hi'...

Checking in on Tesla's Optimus Robot - Managing Expectations

Last year Elon Musk announced at the first Tesla AI day the Tesla Bot, which has since been renamed the Tesla Optimus, that is basically a general purpose humanoid robot assistant with human like appearance and proportions. Elon expected they would have a working prototype by the end of 2022. While very little has been released about the project since, in June Elon took to Twitter to announce that they would delay this year's Tesla AI day until September 30 in anticipation of having a working prototype of the robot by that time. Elon Musk announces the Tesla Bot at the 2021 Tesla AI day. When I initially wrote about the Tesla Bot I noted that both Boston Dynamics and Disney Imagineering are developing robot technologies that demonstrate a streamlined, humanoid robot like Optimus is certainly possible. However with precious few details, and the occasional appearance of static, concept manikins of Tesla Optimus bots at places like the Cyber Rodeo Gigafactory Austin, Texas (see vi...

Why Has It Taken So Long to Get Robots That Walk Like Humans When Someone Cracked it in 2012? (Robot Uprising Update)

Watch this YouTube Short video by Unstopable Gadgets. R ecently a video, This robot has impressive body control , came up in my YouTube homepage showing a mini, realistic walking, and automatic stabilising, humanoid style robot. For a brief moment my mind got a little excited that maybe someone had cracked a consumer friendly, sized human robot that anyone could afford. Now I wasn't thinking this thing was going to be your next household chores assistant, since it was barely the height of a toddler but, to have something that good, that anyone could afford and experiment with. Maybe you've got a kid into robotics who wants to upgrade from Lego Mindstorms for example. Anyway, it turned out the video I was watching was from about 2020 and is of a robot that's been in constant development, by Dr Guero , since 2012/13 and could walk like a human by 2014/15. Back in around 2013 a robot that could walk, at all, on two legs, let alone one that could walk like a human was still v...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog