On October 29th, Norwegian robotics company 1X released NEO, a home humanoid robot designed to automate daily tasks and provide personalized assistance through built-in artificial intelligence. It is priced at $20,000, with a subscription fee of $499 per month.
Norwegian robotics company 1X releases home humanoid robot NEO. Source: Official website
NEO helps humans manage household affairs efficiently. Users only need to give voice commands or press buttons to handle daily tasks such as folding clothes and tidying up items in real time. It can also learn new skills by scheduling expert guidance. Leveraging a built-in large language model and multimodal perception capabilities, NEO can engage in natural conversation, provide contextualized assistance such as identifying ingredients and recommending recipes, and has memory capabilities for seamless personalized interaction.
NEO can continuously evolve in the home environment based on AI learning and software upgrades in real-world scenarios, gradually expanding its service capabilities. Its hardware platform utilizes a patented tendon-driven system, enabling gentle and safe movements. It possesses 22 degrees of freedom in its dexterous hands and a soft, flexible body structure. Weighing approximately 30 kg, it can lift nearly 70 kg of objects, and operates at a noise level of only 22 decibels.
Norwegian robotics company 1X releases home humanoid robot NEO. Source: Official website
NEO is now available for pre-order, with the first orders scheduled for delivery in 2026. Berent Børnich, CEO and founder of 1X, stated, "Humanoid robots were once a product of science fiction…then became research tools, but now, with the advent of NEO, they have truly become a reality."
However, as these robots with remote assistance capabilities enter homes, privacy concerns have arisen. When NEO's expert mode is activated, 1X employees can view the user's home from NEO's perspective. 1X states that all household assistant services require user intervention to activate and can be terminated at any time.
Meanwhile, the Neo robot is currently unable to independently complete all household chores. Some functions still require remote operation by 1X employees, who control the robot like a puppet. This human assistance helps 1X accumulate AI training data.
“True autonomy remains the biggest challenge facing the humanoid robot industry,” said Brett Adcock, CEO of the American humanoid robot startup Figure AI. He added that currently, no humanoid robot product in the entire industry can achieve truly autonomous operation.