1X Bets on Wheeled Robots

Rejecting legs is really a bet that home robotics will be won first by cheap, reliable chore machines, not by robots that can imitate a person. In practice that means prioritizing a rolling base, simpler balance, and a smaller task set like picking up toys or clearing a table, because every removed degree of motion cuts hardware cost, failure points, and safety complexity versus a full humanoid like 1X’s NEO.1 2 3 4 5

• 1X is making the opposite bet. NEO is a consumer humanoid priced at $20,000 upfront or $499 per month, with U.S. deliveries starting in 2026. That price and teleassisted learning model show how much more expensive and operationally heavy full home humanoids still are.1 2 3
• Sunday Robotics is the clearest form factor comparable. Memo uses wheels plus a telescoping spine instead of legs, and Sunday is targeting a sub $10,000 price point. The shared logic is that kitchen counters, laundry baskets, and floor clutter do not require human gait if the robot can roll, reach, and grip.4 5
• The industrial humanoid case points the other way. Foundation argues factories favor two arms and bipedal motion because plants are already built for human workers, and retooling around fixed automation is slow and costly. That contrast helps explain why home robotics startups can more easily abandon the humanoid shape than factory focused players can.6

The likely path is a split market. Non humanoid home robots should reach useful consumer price points first by doing a handful of repetitive chores very well, while humanoids keep improving in parallel for broader but costlier workloads. If wheeled systems prove reliable in real homes, they can lock up the first meaningful consumer robot market before full humanoids are affordable.1 2 4 5 6