What just happened? In what sounds like a diary entry that players might discover in a horror game, the world's first "consumer-ready humanoid robot" designed to help with household tasks is now available for pre-order. It costs $20,000, and buying one also means allowing someone to control the bot remotely for tasks it can't yet perform – and seeing into your home in the process.
Robotics company 1X Technologies (1XT), which secured $100 million in funding from OpenAI, EQT Ventures, and others in 2024, unveiled a bipedal humanoid robot, Neo Beta, last year.
Now, the finished version of the bot is available to pre-order. It's slightly taller than before at 5-foot-6-inches and the amount it can carry has increased to 55 pounds, though Neo still weighs the same 66 pounds as the Beta model. It also seems to have lost its snazzy-looking sweats for what looks like a white turtleneck bodysuit.
1X Technologies writes that owners can give Neo a list of tasks to complete around the house and schedule a time for when they want them completed. It's also able to carry out chores in real-time.
The company names housekeeping tasks such as folding laundry, organizing shelves, watering plants, vacuuming, and tidying as some of its abilities. But it's here where the privacy concerns arise.
When faced with something it hasn't been trained in, a human will remotely take control of Neo using a VR headset, able to see through the bot's cold, dead eyes.
The company writes that Neo's "emotive ear rings" will change color to indicate when an operator is in control, and that owners have full control over when the person can take over and what they can do.
The Washington Times spent some time with Neo and didn't seem enormously impressed. It very slowly retrieved some water from a fridge and loaded a dishwasher, though the reporter never saw the robot do anything autonomously – but it can definitely open doors on its own.
1X Technologies insists, though, that Neo's abilities will improve as the company gathers more training data.
If you can't afford $20,000 for a privacy-invading robot that's seemingly inferior to a human cleaner, there's a $499-per-month subscription offer. US deliveries are expected to start next year before expanding globally in 2027.
We're certainly a long way off Detroit: Become Human-style robots that can perform a multitude of tasks as well as a human, but this could be the first step in a long path toward that goal – and potential human enslavement.