Don’t Let Robots Do Your Chores

Neo, the home robot offered by startup company 1X looks like a very expensive form of vaporware. The humanoid robot is intended to help out around the house, for the subscription price of $499 a month, or $20,000 to own an early version outright. Early adopters, starting next year, will really get a two-for-the-price-of-one deal: a greyscale robot, and an anonymous tele-remote human operator, who puppets Neo from afar and watches you silently though its eyes. The company can’t master autonomous movement without a lot of training data, so they’re counting on enthusiasts to open their homes to their anonymous pilots.