After about a decade in the works, Palo Alto-based robotics company 1X is nearly ready with its Neo humanoid, which is designed to help you with housework and other tasks around the home. It’ll ship sometime next year, and you can either pre-order one to purchase it outright, or pay a monthly subscription fee.
We got a good look at the beta version of the Neo last September; in February of this year, a more refined version appeared in a demo video carrying laundry and serving coffee.
It’s being billed as capable of moving around the house (including climbing stairs) and handling a number of chores autonomously; it can also see things and answer questions with the context of who and what’s in your home, fetch items on demand, and charge itself when it’s low on power.
1X
1X’s marketing team has certainly had its work cut out for it in having to make this look totally normal. Here, check out the indie band music video-like promo below, which depicts the Neo giving families a hand around the house:
NEO The Home Robot | Order Today
The overarching idea behind this robot housekeeper, according to 1X, is to give families more time to do what matters most to them. While it will be able to autonomously tackle a range of chores out of the box when it ships next year, it’ll continually learn to adapt to your needs and take on more diverse tasks with software updates over time.
1X
You’ll be able to schedule a list of chores from a companion app on your phone, or simply tell Neo what needs doing around the house. Your commands can be specific, like ’empty the dishwasher’ and ‘get the door’ (don’t forget to alert your guests about the presence of a robot first), or more general, like ‘organize the entryway’ and ‘clean my bedroom.’
It’s worth noting that initially, Neo’s handiwork won’t be perfect. The company’s solution to that is operating your Neo remotely in ‘Expert Mode,’ in which someone from the company – a human – will oversee the robot and guide it through the task at hand until it’s completed, helping the robot learn the steps involved as it goes. That means someone will have a view into your home through your robot’s eyes. I did not expect to type that out today.
1X
1X says that if you’re buying a Neo – especially one of the first few units – you’ve got to be open to the company capturing all kinds of data through the robot for the purposes of improving its capabilities. That will be on your terms, in the sense that people in the Neo’s field of view will be blurred in its camera feed, and it will not venture into any no-go zones you set around your home. Still, that means it won’t be for everyone across the spectrum of privacy concerns at launch.
1X
So what’s this humanoid companion made of? The Neo stands 5.5 ft (167 cm) tall, weighs 66 lb (30 kg), and operates for 4 hours before needs to recharge itself. It’s got four mics, three speakers, and two 8-megapixel cameras to hear, speak and see. A series of high torque density motors power tendons to allow it to move, and pick up objects precisely, along with hands that are said to exhibit human-level dexterity with 22 degrees of freedom. It can lift items weighing up to 154 lb (70 kg), and carry up to 55 lb (25 kg).
All this is wrapped in a soft body made of custom 3D lattice polymer structures and wrapped in machine washable fabric. There’s also a whole lot of AI powering its movements, and its ability to understand what it’s looking at and hearing. 1X says the Neo operates at a noise level of 22 dB, which is less than a regular refrigerator.
1X
The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern got to check out the current version of Neo, and found it wasn’t yet ready for autonomously doing much of anything, really. In the WSJ’s video, you can see how much it time it took to complete simple tasks, how it did not appear confident loading a dishwasher with glassware over the course of five minutes, and how it needed a teleoperator to do most things. This will all be fine-tuned before it ships – the question is to what degree.
My position on humanoids in the home will evolve as the technologies powering them advance. At the moment, I’ve got the usual list of concerns on my mind about products like the Neo – will it go rogue, and might it malfunction due to server outages or bugs? More importantly, 1X doesn’t talk about how it will protect owners from having their robots hacked into or how it’ll keep their data private.
1X
I understand that at this point, companies with AI-enabled tech like to make promises of infinite possibilities with their products. But I prefer the certainty of devices with limitations: I like knowing exactly what my washing machine and microwave can do, and what they can’t. I’d like the makers of the things I use around the house daily to be intentional and precise about building those functions, rather than enabling a wider variety of capabilities that can’t all be executed consistently and reliably.
That’s my rant.
If you’re in the US, you can pre-order the Neo by putting down a US$200 deposit. You can opt to pony up $20,000 to buy your Neo, or sign up for a $499 monthly subscription. It’s available in Tan, Gray, and Dark Brown colorways. The robot will come to other markets starting 2027.
Source: 1X via Business Wire
