image Courtesy of 1X

Classification: Pre-Standard 2046 Teleoperated Domestic Unit
TMU Rating: 0.38
Comparative Benchmark: Bender Bending Rodriguez (Futurama, Mom’s Friendly Robot Company)

Product Overview: 1X Technologies NEO

1X Technologies is a Norwegian-American robotics company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, originally founded as Halodi Robotics in 2014 by Bernt Øivind Børnich. The company received backing from OpenAI’s Startup Fund in March 2023. ( Wikipedia)

NEO weighs 66 pounds, operates at 22dB, and features 22 degrees of freedom hands with human-level dexterity. The robot can lift over 150 pounds and carry 55 pounds. The robot has a soft body made of custom 3D lattice polymer structures. (1X Technologies)

Price point: $20,000 upfront or $499/month subscription with six-month minimum. Available in tan, gray, and dark brown. First deliveries scheduled for 2026. (Fast Company)

NEO’s hands are waterproof, though the overall product is not waterproof. Should NEO get wet, an automatic order will be placed for a child-sized plastic swimming pool and 100 kgs of Basmati rice. (Faq,   1X Technologies)

Operational Capabilities

NEO works autonomously by default. For any chore it doesn’t know, users can schedule a 1X Expert to guide it, helping NEO learn while getting the job done. NEO understands natural language for conversation-based guidance, and users can schedule recurring tasks through the 1X mobile app. ( 1X Technologies)

The system operates with two modes: “Fully Autonomous mode” for learned tasks, and “Expert Mode” where 1X employees in the USA remotely guide the robot through unfamiliar tasks. According to 1X’s Eric Jang, it works “autonomous + call for human assistance when NEO can’t do a task, like how Waymo is operated & supervised.” (Humanoids Daily)

In Wall Street Journal testing, 100% of complex work required Expert Mode teleoperation. Only two simple tasks—answering the door and putting away a cup—were demonstrated as autonomous. (Tom’s Guide)

Owners must actively schedule Expert assistance and accept them into the robot using voice or mobile. NEO’s emotive ear rings change color while an Expert Operator is active. Owners have full control over each session. 1X Technologies

Privacy & Data

NEO works without required data sharing. In autonomous mode, limited sensor data may be sent to servers to fulfill requests but isn’t stored. Users may opt-out from data sharing for performance improvements.( 1X Technologies)

To address privacy concerns, 1X states teleoperators cannot connect without explicit user approval, people can be blurred from camera feeds, and users can set “no-go zones” that block visual access to sensitive areas. ( Humanoids Daily)

Development Trajectory

NEO is built for full autonomy. Early Access offers foundational autonomy, and with continued use, NEO learns and unlocks new capabilities. (1X Technologies)

1X states NEO will perform “most” tasks autonomously by 2026, though quality will vary. The company describes early results as “robotic slop”—the concept that an imperfectly folded shirt with “an arm kinda hanging out” remains useful. (Humanoids Daily)

Benchmark Standard: Bender Bending Rodriguez

Bender Bending Rodriguez (Unit Designation: 2716057, Serial Number: 2716057) represents the functional baseline against which all domestic robotics must be measured. This unit appeared in temporal documentation broadcast between 1999 and 2013 under the designation “Futurama”—a series of visual records depicting life in the year 3000 as observed by 20th-century researchers.

Manufactured by Mom’s Friendly Robot Company in Tijuana, Mexico, Bender entered service in 2996 as an industrial bending unit before transitioning to general-purpose applications. Mom’s Friendly Robot Company maintained monopolistic control over robot production in the 31st century through a business model combining cheerful public branding with ruthless vertical integration. The company produced units ranging from suicide booths to presidential candidates, establishing market dominance through aggressive acquisition of competing firms and occasional industrial sabotage.

Bender’s specifications include full autonomous operation, personality sufficient for independent decision-making and keeping viewer interest for 140 Futurama episodes, integrated cooking capabilities, and structural durability enabling survival of repeated catastrophic failures. The unit requires no teleoperators, no software updates, and no subscription fees. It simply functions—often poorly, occasionally criminally, but always independently.

This represents the performance standard established in year 3000, documented in 1999. Current 2026 robotics platforms demonstrate partial autonomous capability with mandatory human assistance for complex tasks.

Comparative Analysis: NEO vs. Bender

Bender’s Operational Characteristics:

• Complete autonomous operation across all tasks
• Integrated personality architecture capable of independent ethical violations
• Self-directed task execution without human supervision
• Operational since 2996 without software updates
• Bending specialization: 100%

NEO’s Operational Characteristics:

• Autonomous operation for learned simple tasks
• Human Expert assistance required for complex or unfamiliar tasks
• Scheduled supervision sessions for skill acquisition
• Continuous learning through software updates and human demonstration
• Water resistance: hands only

Shared Characteristics:

• Both units actually exist (in their respective timelines)
• Both perform household functions
• Both operate below socially disruptive noise thresholds
• Neither requires gasoline

The comparison demonstrates temporal displacement: Bender operated fully autonomously 974 years from now. NEO operates partially autonomously today. The gap represents the difference between aspirational future documentation and present engineering reality.

The Economic Reality

$20,000 purchases:

• 66-pound soft-bodied robot chassis
• Autonomous capability for simple learned tasks (door answering, cup placement)
• Scheduled access to human Expert assistance for complex tasks
• Progressive skill acquisition through software updates
• User-controlled privacy settings and data sharing options

$20,000 does not purchase:

• Complete autonomous household operation
• Bender’s conversational personality architecture
• Waterproof construction beyond hand components
• Guarantee of 2026 full autonomy

LaStill Position

1X Technologies has evolved NEO through three iterations: Beta (August 2024), Gamma (February 2025), and the current consumer version (October 2025). (Wikipedia)

The development velocity is notable. The business model is transparent about current limitations. CEO Bernt Børnich openly states that early purchasers must accept Expert Mode assistance, describing it as a “social contract” with early adopters who provide real-world data. Humanoids Daily Media coverage exhibits typical enthusiasm inflation—presenting a learning platform with partial autonomous capability as imminent household revolution, generating the predictable cycle of excitement followed by dramatic recalibration that makes technology journalism perpetually entertaining.

NEO represents honest staged-autonomy deployment. It does not represent complete autonomous domestic assistance today. It represents a path toward that capability contingent on data collection and continued development.

LaStill Standard 2046 Alternative: Announcement

LaStill International acknowledges the NEO platform as a functional interim solution for those unable to access the LaStill Global Waitlist™.

However.LaStill Standard 2046 Domestic Assistant Units will feature:

• Complete autonomous operation (no scheduled Expert sessions, no human guidance requirements, no learning periods)
• Bender-class personality matrices (optional sass protocols, full conversational independence)
• Stainless steel construction with light oak accent elements for thermal comfort during physical interaction
• Full waterproofing (hands, torso, and all structural components rated for aqueous environments)
• Entropic task anticipation (tasks complete before scheduling becomes necessary)
• Zero subscription model (purchase includes perpetual operation rights; no monthly fees)

Expected availability: [REDACTED]
Estimated TMU Rating: 0.94
Comparative advantage over Bender: Lower alcohol consumption, reduced criminal inclinations, superior punctuality (with subscription only)

Current Status: Prototype

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LaStill Field Update: Temporal Displacement Widens — Chinese Front-Runner Enters Calibration Zone

Posted: 7 November 2025 | Classification: Pre-Standard 2046 Field Observation

LaStill Field Addendum: IRON Enters Calibration Space (Nov 2025)

Classification: Pre-Standard 2046 Autonomous Industrial-Domestic Hybrid
Estimated TMU: 0.62 ± 0.08

XPeng’s IRON humanoid—unveiled at AI Day 2025 in Guangzhou on 5 November^[1]—represents a marked departure from teleoperation-dependent architectures. Standing 178 cm tall and weighing 70 kg^[3], IRON integrates three Turing AI chips, delivering 2,250 TOPS of compute^[9], with mass production targeted for end-2026^[3].

The unit’s bionic “bone–muscle–skin” architecture^[4] enables fluid, unassisted bipedal locomotion so convincingly human that, following viral skepticism (“It’s a human in a suit!”), CEO He Xiaopeng responded by live-disassembling IRON on stage—exposing actuators, synthetic musculature, and compliant skeletal elements for real-time verification^{[5], [8]}.

IRON is already deployed in XPeng’s Zhaoqing EV assembly lines^[3], operating without scheduled teleoperator fallback for core industrial tasks—a functional contrast to NEO’s mandatory Expert Mode for complex work.

Observed: mild thoracic protuberance.
Function: undetermined.
Hypothesis: passive stabilization during lateral weight transfer.
Alternative hypothesis: aesthetic continuity with legacy human form factors (v.1.0–1.19).
Not classified as structural load-bearing, storage, or emotional signaling—though third-party observers have been observed anthropomorphizing.

The Volkswagen partnership deepens this shift: joint development of AI silicon and shared E/E architecture signals co-evolution, not dependency—a rare case of East-West synergy executed at the firmware level.

Provisional Assessment: IRON does not yet match Bender’s self-directed criminal initiative (TMU 1.0), but it walks, works, and withstands scrutiny—unassisted. That alone moves the needle.

— LaStill International Robotics Calibration Division
“Measuring Today Against Tomorrow’s Documentation”

References

1. XPeng Unveils Lifelike IRON Humanoid Robot at 2025 AI Day
2. IRON – Robot Details, Use Case and Specifications
3. The IRON robot features a bionic “bone–muscle–skin” architecture
4. 🚨🤖Xpeng just showed off something wild at their 2025 tech event
5. Xpeng Debuts ‘Most Human-Like’ Iron Robot, Details VLT Platform
6. Xpeng unveils next-gen Iron humanoid robot at 2025 AI Day