Joanna Stern on the 1X Neo, a Humanoid ‘Robot’ Housekeeper That Is Actually Remote-Controlled by Humans

Joanna Stern, writing for The Wall Street Journal (gift link):

It was wild to watch. Sure, Neo nearly toppled over while closing the dishwasher, took two minutes to fold the shirt and twisted its arm attempting to dance the Macarena. But shhh. Remember the rule. Oh, did I mention Neo had a human puppet master, controlling it with a VR headset?

Neo’s creator, 1X Technologies, is making the Rosie-the-Robot dream: some of the first humanoid housekeepers. Starting Tuesday, you can apply to its early adopter program and preorder one for $20,000, with delivery expected in 2026. The company will also offer a $499 monthly rental plan with a six-month minimum commitment.

Just one hidden cost: your privacy. For now, you’ll need to be cool with a company representative potentially peering through the robot’s camera eyes to get chores done. There are guardrails, including controls over when and what the operator can do.

As usual, Stern made a delightful short film to accompany her article, which is also available on YouTube.

The argument from CEO Bernt Børnich is that they’re using the videos from the current state of Neo, where its actions are entirely remote-controlled by employees of 1X Technologies, to train its autonomy. I call bullshit. This looks to me like nothing but a scam. It’s not autonomous at all, I don’t believe this company is going to achieve any practical degree of autonomy with this product, and even while it’s remote-controlled by human operators, it’s slow and clumsy.

See also: Marques Brownlee, who smells vaporware as clearly as I do: “There seems to be a bit of a lost art in waiting for a tech product to be actually finished before announcing and unveiling it.”

★ Friday, 31 October 2025