1X opens NEO pre-orders at $20,000 with teleoperation explicitly disclosed as part of the consumer rollout

1X Technologies opened pre-orders for NEO on October 28, 2025, positioning the bipedal home humanoid as the first consumer-direct robot of its kind: $20,000 Early Access (or $499/month subscription) with a $200 deposit, first U.S. shipments slated for 2026 and international expansion in 2027. Unlike Tesla's prior framing of comparable demonstrations as autonomous, 1X CEO Bernt Børnich explicitly disclosed that NEO will rely on remote human teleoperators for complex household tasks the on-device autonomy cannot yet handle, with the company framing teleoperation as the deliberate strategic path to consumer rollout rather than a stop-gap.