Norwegian Robotics Startup 1X will begin early testing of the humanoid robot Neo Gamma at “hundreds to thousands” homes by the end of 2025, according to the company's CEO BerntBørnich.
“Neo Gamma will be in the house this year,” Børnich told TechCrunch in an interview at NVIDIA GTC 2025.
In recent months, the hype around humanoid robots in the home has reached new heights.
Figure, a Bay Area-based competitor with an active social media presence, announced in February that it will begin home testing of humanoid robots in 2025. A few weeks later, Bloomberg reported that he was speaking on a $1.5 billion fundraiser with a $40 billion valuation that would distract him. One times more investor, Openai is reportedly investigating the construction of its own humanoid robot.
However, putting heavy metal robots in people's homes increases the interests of early industry. Unlike self-driving car startups that place Robotaxis on the streets. It can turn south – soon.
But Bornicz is very open about the fact that neogamma is a long way from commercial scaling and autonomy.
Neo Gamma uses AI to walk and balance, but robots are completely incompetent in today's autonomous movement. To enable home testing, Bornicz says 1X “bootstraps the process” by relying on teleoperators (a remote human who can see neogamma cameras and sensors in real time).
These home tests allow 1X to collect data on how NEO Gamma works at home. Early Adapters help 1X create large, valuable datasets that can be used to train in-house AI models and upgrade Neo Gamma features.
Børnich says he is training in-house in-house today while being supported by Openai. The company also “occasionally” co-trains AI models with partners, including the aforementioned Openai and Nvidia.
Of course, there are a lot of privacy concerns when you collect data from microphones and cameras inside people's homes and train AI models. In an email to TechCrunch, a company spokesperson said it could determine when customers can see Neo Gamma's surroundings, whether onex the employees are audited or remotely operated.
The Neo Gamma, announced in February, is the first bipedal robot prototype that 1X will be testing outside the lab. Compared to its predecessor, Neo Beta, Neo Gamma features a knit nylon bodysuit aimed at improving its onboard AI model and reducing robot-to-human contact.
During the demonstration in GTC, 1X introduced Neo Gamma's ability to perform some basic tasks in a living room setting that is partially driven by a human operator. The robots sucked up vacuum cleaners, painted plants and roamed the room without hitting people or furniture. But it wasn't perfect. At one point, the robot began to shake and collapsed into Bornicz's arm. One times more employees denounced Sotty Wi-Fi for their meeting hall and low battery.
Similar to the figure's plans, details regarding the 1X early adoption program are not clear. 1X has yet to disclose Neo Gamma's secondment strategy for markets, but there is a waitlist on its website. It's also difficult to imagine how using Neo gamma at home would work without remote control. The spokesman said 1X would provide a “more thorough explanation” at a later date.
Hundreds or thousands of people may be able to try out the early human-assisted versions of Neo Gamma this year, but it appears we are still years away from autonomous humanoid robots that can buy shelves.