1X NEO is the first humanoid sold for the home: pre-orders are open, first deliveries — in the US. The robot in a soft fabric suit tidies up, fetches things and opens doors. For a family, it is the first real chance to try a home robot on for size: not a vacuum disc but a figure with arms that takes the small household chores off your hands. NEO is not sold in Russia or Vietnam.
How it works
NEO’s body is soft: the frame and drives are hidden under a fabric suit, with no sharp corners or exposed hinges on the outside. This is a choice made for the home — the robot walks among people, children and furniture, and an accidental touch here is safer than with a rigid machine. Under the fabric are electric motors in the joints, cameras for vision and a battery that keeps the robot running between charges.
NEO does simple tasks on its own: it sees the room through its cameras, recognizes objects and repeats movements the neural network has learned. What it cannot do, it does under the control of a remote 1X operator. The operator sees the home through the robot’s cameras and guides its hands from a distance — roughly the way a pilot flies a drone. For the owner, the result is the same: towels folded, things in their place, the door open.
Every such session is new training data. The neural network watches how the operator solved the task and tries it on its own next time. That is why NEO’s autonomy grows with every update, like an intern’s skills. This is the honest price of an early stage. 1X is preparing production at its factory in Hayward: it opened on 30 Apr 2026 and is designed for 10,000 robots a year.
Where it already works
- Buyers in the US — pre-order with a $200 deposit: $20,000 or $499 a month
- Home — tidies up, fetches things, opens doors; the hard parts — with a remote 1X operator
- Hayward, California — 1X’s factory for 10,000 robots a year, since 30 Apr 2026
- AbsoTech waitlist — for Russia and Vietnam, while there are no sales there
What to consider
- The hard parts are done by a remote 1X operator — a live person sees the home through the robot’s cameras
- Status — Announced: pre-orders are open, but no buyer has the robot in hand yet
- Not sold in Russia or Vietnam; 1X promises other countries from 2027
- A pre-order is an early version: autonomy grows with updates, not from day one