1X Just Unveiled NEO, a Robot That Can Do Your Chores
1X, the company behind NEO, claims that NEO is a robot housekeeper that does all of your chores. From washing the dishes to vacuuming the floor to folding your laundry, NEO does it all. It even charges itself so you don't even have to worry about maintaining it. This all sounds amazing, you go out for work, and after a busy day at work, you come home and all of your chores are done, you can just lay down on your couch and doomscroll for the rest of the day.
And it's in pre-order right now, you can deposit $200 to reserve a spot, the actual price will be $20,000 and it will ship in 2026 (According to 1X).
So What's The Problem?
The problem is that our current capabilities are not ready for NEO. During almost all the demonstrations, NEO was being remote controlled by someone using a VR headset. 1X was really careful about labeling whether NEO is being remotely operated or not, and in the entire demonstration full of sections with NEO vacuuming floors, picking up clutter, carrying stuff around, there are only 2 sections where NEO was in "autonomous mode" and operating itself. The first section is when NEO opened the door for a guest. The second is when NEO grabs a cup from a person to go put away. 1X is promising an AI robot that can autonomously do all of your chores shipping in 2026, but in November 2025, NEO barely has the ability to do very simple tasks by itself. The gap between what 1X is promising and what 1X is currently capable of is massive, but they are still asking for your money right now.
The problem is that even with a remote operator, NEO is still clunky. It struggles to close the door of a dish washer (it also struggled with a fridge door and the front door), it struggles to pick up items, it can't crush a walnut even though 1X claims it can lift 150 pounds. And the thing is that this is the ideal scenario set up by 1X to showcase NEO, the demonstration has probably already been rehearsed hundreds of times. Imagine if NEO was not in an ideal scenario, what if the floor is slippery? What if there's something blocking its way? I struggle to believe 1X can overcome all of the technological barriers that comes with delivering all of their promises with NEO within the next few months, I don't even think we will reach that capability in 10 years.
Why?
Let's say 1X delivers on every one of their promises regarding what NEO can do. I still don't see the point. I can't think of anything that NEO can do better than other cheaper existing products. Roombas clean the floor better and faster, for a fraction of the price, you need someone to get the door? Just use Google home and unlock the door on your phone, or tell Google Assistant to unlock the door with your voice if you are too lazy to pick up your phone.
Also just the design of NEO is very inefficient, the fact that it is a humanoid and has to walk and balance on two legs and do tasks with its only two hands makes no sense. Imagine if it was like R2D2, it can move around with wheels and it would be extremely stable, it wouldn't be limited to the human anatomy, it can use grabbers to pick up items instead of hands, it can use wires to pull things around, we can attach a cleaner at the bottom like a roomba, the possibilities are endless, but 1X decided that NEO has to be a humanoid for some reason and so NEO is being held back by its form.
NEO is also a Huge Security and Privacy Concern
So now, instead of having our phones and laptops spy and listen to everything we talk about, we now have a robot being remote controlled by a person that can see, listen, and even interact with everything in our homes. Oh and they can unlock your door too.
Conclusion?
1X is going to overpromise and underdeliver. The technical challenges that they have to overcome to achieve everything they are promising with NEO is basically impossible. This is just another AI startup trying to sell a dream instead of selling a product, like the Humane Pin, or the Rabbit R1. It's just the reality of the AI landscape right now. AI is not profitable at all, and these AI companies have to keep raising more and more money to fund their operations that are constantly losing money. And the only way to do that is to keep promising bigger and bigger things, but AI advancement is slowly stagnating and the promises that are being made is very far away from what our current capabilities are.
I don't doubt that something like NEO will exist in the future because the fact is that nobody likes doing their chores, and having a robot do them for you is a great idea. But it's too soon for that right now, maybe even a decade later is too soon, and 1X is not going to be the company to do it.
If we look back at this post in a few years and find NEO in every home, every AI company profitable, and the entire S&P 500 doing AI, then I will gladly eat my words.
Thanks for reading.