The Future Of Robotics Or A Technological Mirage?

In March 2025, 1X announced that it would begin testing Neo, a humanoid robot designed to take care of all chores and other household tasks, directly in people’s homes. The big day has finally arrived: last week, the Californian startup declared that these revolutionary machines were finally available for pre-order. An announcement which, in a parallel universe, could have marked the start of a real revolution… if it were not a blatant example of the worst excesses of modern tech.

This android is presented as a true house fairy capable to tackle just about any everyday chore, from watering plants to doing laundry, tidying up and cleaning – all completely independently. A gain in peace of mind and precious time for owners; after all, who wouldn’t appreciate coming home to a perfectly maintained house after a long day of work, and being able to sit comfortably in front of their favorite hobby rather than having to iron shirts?

On paper, we must admit that Neo has it all. But as soon as we look at the details of the announcement, we quickly discover several problematic points which do not bode well for the future of Neo.

A not-so-autonomous robot

The first, and certainly the most prohibitive, is that Neo is still only a prototype. If the machine itself is already relatively mature, the same cannot be said of its control system powered by artificial intelligence, which is still in its infancy. In fact, it is still very far from the capabilities put forward by the company; Right now, he’s only able to do a tiny fraction of the chores you might expect from watching these promotional videos.

Because of these still very limited capacities, Neo therefore needs… a human assistance. And to be clear, we are not talking about simple instructions: when the robot is lost, it is a flesh and blood human operator who must put on a virtual reality headset, grab a pair of controllers and take direct control of the machine to carry out the task in question ! Needless to say, there are many, many potential problems with this approach.

In practice, buying Neo therefore amounts to paying a huge sum ($20,000 at once or $499 per month) for invite a stranger into your homewith all that this implies in terms of confidentiality. Even if the company mentions numerous privacy protection measures (establishment of prohibited areas, blurring of faces, control of the robot subject to user approval, etc.), it is a safe bet that this concession risks discouraging more than one potential customer.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg, because it will also be necessary to take into account numerous technical problems that could arise during this teleoperation process. What happens if the customer’s Internet connection fails while the robot is handling a fragile object, interacting with a child or animal, or cooking food through the robot? A simple delay in connection could be enough to cause a serious accident. And what about liability for property damage or personal injury — the user, the remote operator or the company?

Another major problem: that of security. This mode of operation necessarily implies the existence of access points which, in theory, could be exploited by malicious actors to spy on a home or sabotage equipment. Not really reassuring.

A business model doomed to failure?

Admittedly, 1X claims that this solution is only temporary. 1X hopes that first-time buyers will allow it to accumulate large quantities of data to gradually improve Neo’s autonomy, so that it can one day evolve without the slightest human supervision. But until we get there, will customers have the slightest interest in paying so much money for the privilege of transforming their home into a laboratory serving an American startup? Nothing is less certain.

And that’s a big problem for the company. Because if it does not manage to convince a large number of customers, which seems compromised because of the limits mentioned above, it will not be able to continue developing its algorithms to bring Neo to a level of maturity compatible with the expectations of the general public. The least we can say is that the business model therefore seems excessively shaky.

You will have understood: 1X and Neo are the perfect incarnation of the excesses of modern big tech, which increasingly seeks to sell the future at a high Price before even having built it. However, it will be appropriate to follow the trajectory of the company and other leading figures in the domestic android industry, starting with Tesla and its Optimus. It is entirely possible that this type of device will one day launch an unprecedented revolution in the history of humanity – but it is clear that the road remains very long, and it will be fascinating to follow the rest of this adventure.