A few years ago, a robot that washes floors and folds clothes seemed like pure science fiction. But now, 1X Technologies has opened pre-orders for NEO Home Robot, a humanoid robot designed specifically for the home. It is approximately 165-167 cm tall, weighs about 30 kg, and is designed to perform ordinary household tasks: cleaning, carrying things, and helping with the daily schedule.
From the outside, NEO looks not like a metal transformer but like a thin man in a soft suit. Its body is covered with a soft polymeric material, and inside it is a so-called tendon drive, a tendon-based drive system that mimics the work of muscles. This is done on purpose to make the robot safer in an apartment with people, children, and animals.
Why do they take it home?
The idea is simple: to transfer some of the small but constant tasks to a robot. NEO can vacuum, fold laundry, wipe surfaces, open and close doors, carry groceries, and turn lights on and off. It can do more than just lift a light box, it can also carry up to 25 kg and lift heavier items up to 70 kg with one hand if needed.
In everyday life, it looks something like this: you leave it a task through the app or by voice. For example, you say, “At seven in the evening, vacuum the living room, put clean clothes in the closets, and check if the lights are off in the kitchen.” While you are at work or on business, NEO goes around the apartment, completes the task one by one, and returns to charge itself.
The robot remembers your regular requests and gradually offers to repeat them automatically. If you ask the robot to prepare the living room for guests every Friday, you can eventually create a separate script and just run it with a single phrase.
How does he understand what you want from him
Inside NEO is 1X’s own artificial intelligence system, called Redwood AI. In simple terms, it is a robot brain that combines cameras, microphones, and motion control. It sees the room, hears your voice, recognizes words, and turns them into actions: walk to the table, pick up a plate, put it in the dishwasher.
You can communicate with the robot as you would a smart speaker – with ordinary phrases without a commanding style. It responds to voice and also receives tasks via the app on your phone. There is also an “expert mode”: if NEO does not yet know how to perform a complex action, an operator wearing VR glasses can connect to it and remotely show it how to do it correctly. Let’s say you ask the robot to carefully arrange glassware on the shelves, and it has never done this before. Then a specialist controls NEO remotely, using the robot’s hands to repeat the necessary movements, showing where and how to place the plates and cups. During such training sessions, the robot seems to look through the eyes of a person and memorizes the movements. Then it can repeat the action on its own. The more different homes and situations, the more examples all NEOs get to learn from. In this way, it should gradually become smarter and more independent.
Questions to think about
The obvious advantage of NEO is that it takes care of boring tasks. Part of the time you used to spend on cleaning can be used for relaxation, children, hobbies, or work. This is especially true for large homes, families with small children, older people, or those who find it difficult to carry something heavy/stand for long periods of time.
There are also important nuances. First, the price. Currently, the robot costs about $20,000, although there is also an option to subscribe for about $499 per month, plus a small deposit for pre-ordering (preliminary deliveries are planned to begin in the United States in 2026, and later enter international markets). This is not a mass product for everyone, but rather an option for wealthy early adopters who are willing to test a new technology.
Second, privacy. For operators to train the robot, it sometimes needs access to cameras and microphones in your home. The company assures you of various privacy settings, such as marking closed areas, limiting access time, and using face blurring. But it’s still important to answer yourself honestly: are you comfortable with someone remotely seeing your home, even if it’s a certified employee?
For whom NEO is best suited
As we have already partially mentioned above, it is primarily for those who are constantly at work and do not want to spend their weekends cleaning. It will also become indispensable for the elderly – bringing something heavy or getting it from the top shelf is not a problem for it. And for small shops or coffee shops, such a robot is both a help and a cool advertisement.
But keep in mind that this is a complex technique that is still being learned. If you’re willing to forgive him for his mistakes and learn new things together, you’ll be friends without any problems. If you expect everything to work perfectly from the first second, then you might want to wait a little longer.
In general, NEO Home Robot looks like the first serious step towards making a robot from a movie part of a real apartment. It is not perfect yet, it performs many tasks with the participation of human operators, is expensive, and requires trust in the manufacturer. But remember, a humanoid that moves quietly around the apartment, opens doors, responds with simple phrases, and attentively follows what you ask for will inevitably change the feeling of home. For some people, this will be a welcome freedom from routine. Others, however, will feel as if their personal space is now shared not just by technology, but by another attentive user, albeit not a living being.
The beginning of the era of home robots evokes a bit of a contradiction. On the one hand, many people are excited about the new possibilities of technology, but on the other hand, they are worried that we are no longer the only owners of our space, because in order for the assistant to be as effective as possible, it must constantly monitor us…
