For the price of a pretty solid used Chevy Malibu, you could soon get a very new 5-foot-6-inch humanoid robot to fold your laundry. Robotics company 1X announced preorders for Neo, which it claims is the “world’s first consumer-ready humanoid robot.”
For $20,000—or a $499 per month rental fee and a six-month commitment—the lanky robot can do simple tasks around the house, such as unloading the dishwasher and watering plants, and can answer your questions through its built-in large language model.
Unlike those sharp, metal military dogs that are always doing flips, Neo has a soft body and moves slowly. The bot can carry about 55 pounds and lasts for four hours on a single charge.
Is Neo ready to become the Rosie of your family? Well, sometimes it falls over, and it still needs a lot of human help. In fact, all of the tasks Neo performed in a test run with a reporter from the Wall Street Journal weren’t done autonomously. If you want Neo to do something complicated like clean the bathroom or vacuum, you’ll have to let a 1X employee wearing a VR headset remotely access the body (and cameras) to assist with training.
Neo is watching. 1X claims safety guardrails are in place to protect your privacy, but there’s still a camera-equipped walking, talking robot in your house.—MM
This report was originally published by Morning Brew.