Man Preorders Tesla Optimus Competitor’s Humanoid Robot For A $500/Month Subscription. But There’s A Catch To How It Works
"Someone is controlling every move, and they can see through the cameras of this robot."
A man who put a deposit on the viral Neo robot shared some of his concerns with the AI assistant, primarily that the device isn’t truly powered by artificial intelligence. TikTok user Ray (@TeslaXplored), who regularly uploads Tesla-themed content, posted a video discussing the competitor to the EV maker’s Optimus, and commenters echoed many of his concerns with the soon-to-be-released product.
“I ordered a humanoid robot for $20,000, and I’m already regretting it,” Ray says at the top of his video. Following this, he gives a little backstory into what prompted him to plop down some money for a Neo robot. It’s what Palo Alto based robotics company 1X calls its “flagship” product: a humanoid AI-learning assistant that’s designed to live alongside human beings to help us complete daily tasks and chores. Vacuuming, washing and drying dishes and putting them away, tidying up and other menial tasks are all part of Neo’s promised functionality.
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Ray says in the video that he made a refundable, $200 preorder and chose a $499 subscription option instead of spending $20,000 to buy a Neo outright. He says he made the purchase Neo partly so he could compare it to Tesla’s own unreleased robot, Optimus, which Tesla describes as a “general purpose, bi-pedal, humanoid robot capable of performing tasks that are unsafe, repetitive, or boring.”
Is Neo a Spy Robot?
However, Ray says he became concerned about Neo after the Wall Street Journal published a story in which technology columnist Joanna Stern tried a demo and found that the robot is being remotely controlled, meaning the device is actively watching and listening (with its four onboard microphones) to everything that’s going on in your home.
“Apparently everything that this robot does is 100% teleoperated. So someone is controlling every move, and they can see through the cameras of this robot,” Ray says. “So basically, what they’re also saying is that in 2026, it’s not gonna be autonomous, whatever’s gonna ship to you … there’s gonna be someone, I don’t know who, teleoperating this from wherever their office is, looking into my house and seeing everything in my house.”
Ray goes on to express his discomfort, saying, “There’s a huge privacy concern in this. I don’t know, I don’t feel comfortable with this.”
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Reactions To Neo
Users who replied to Ray’s TikTok expressed similar concerns. One person said they’d much rather just wait for Tesla’s Optimus to drop, whereas another pointed out that $500 a month could be better spent to simply “hire a [expletive] service to come to your home like every week.”
Another commenter replied that they didn’t feel safe having a remote-controlled robot in their home. “That’s not a privacy concern that’s a security risk.”
Other publications have shared similar concerns. A Ynetnews report called Neo “a dream for your home - and nightmare” and delineated potential privacy concerns.
This Medium post calls Neo an act of “deception” by 1X, adding that the household robo-assistant “cannot perform a single household task autonomously.” The author highlights that Neo’s tech demo showcased how “every chore completed during her demo was controlled by a human operator wearing a VR headset in another room.”
“This isn’t a case of ‘some features require remote assistance.’ This is 100% teleoperation — a fancy term for remote control,” the post’s author writes. “The robot isn’t thinking. It’s not learning in real-time. It’s being puppeteered, movement by movement, by a 1X employee watching your home through Neo’s camera eyes.”
InsideEVs has reached out to Neo via email and Ray via TikTok direct message for further comment.
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