You can now buy a humanoid robot housekeeper for less than the price of a second-hand car. But before splashing out, there's something you need to know Science fiction is strewn with humanoid robots, from bad-tempered Bender in to cunning Ava in . And it has long seemed like that's the natural home for such robots - on the screen and in books. The idea of a walking, talking, functioning robot with two arms and two legs has appeared to be a distant dream. Last year, machines ran, boxed and even played football at China's World Humanoid Robot Games, albeit sometimes falling over in the process . Meanwhile, companies have been readying their own range of humanoids that promise to do something a bit more useful: help around the house .

Humanoid home robots are on the market - but do we really want them? Last year, Norwegian-US tech company 1X announced a strange new product: "the world's first consumer-ready humanoid robot designed to transform life at home". Standing 168 centimetres tall and weighing in at 30 kilograms, the US$20,000 Neo bot promises to automate common household chores such as folding laundry and loading the dishwasher. Neo has a built-in artificial intelligence (AI) system, but for tricky tasks it requires a 1X employee wearing a virtual reality helmet to remotely take over the robot. The operator can see whatever the bot does inside your house, and the process is recorded for future learning.

Agibot, which led global humanoid robot shipments in 2025 with 5,168 units, demonstrates production-ready technology through massive robot performance event in Shanghai.

Should we be impressed or worried by China's humanoid robot display? - video China's dancing robots: how worried should we be? Dancing humanoid robots took centre stage on Monday during the annual China Media Group's Spring Festival Gala, China's most-watched official television broadcast. They lunged and backflipped (landing on their knees), they spun around and jumped. The display was impressive, but prompted some to wonder: if robots can now dance and perform martial arts, what else can they do? Experts have mixed opinions, with some saying the robots had limitations and that the display should be viewed through a lens of state propaganda.

China's annual gala on Lunar New Year's Eve has showcased Beijing's giant leap in technology as humanoid robots took centre stage to perform a joint martial arts routine featuring several firsts. China's Spring Festival Gala, which aired on Monday on state broadcaster CGTN, has gone viral, drawing nearly half a million views on YouTube. The performance marked a stark contrast with last year's show, when robots twirled handkerchiefs and performed simple movements. The first robots to appear were Noetix's Bumi models, who performed a comedy sketch. Unitree's robots later exhibited martial arts alongside child artists, including backflips and trampoline jumps, followed by Magiclab's humanoids in a musical segment.

Chinese robotics firm MirrorMe Technology unveiled Bolt, a 5-foot-7-inch humanoid robot that outran founder Wang Hongtao at 22 mph using advanced balance control.

Fauna Robotics has introduced Sprout, a 3.5-foot humanoid robot designed for homes, schools and offices. The startup built the robot with safety-first features.

A Waymo vehicle pictured on January 15, 2026 in Austin, Texas. A Waymo vehicle pictured on January 15, 2026 in Austin, Texas. Welcome back to, TIME's new twice-weekly newsletter about AI. If you're reading this in your browser, why not subscribe to have the next one delivered straight to your inbox? On Wednesday night, I went to a press event in London hosted by the Google-owned robotaxi firm Waymo, which announced it was aiming to make driverless taxis available to Londoners by the fourth quarter of 2026. Even though Waymos have been driving autonomously in a handful of U.S. cities for years now, it's worth paying attention to what's going on in London.

Elon Musk is making a big bet on his future vision - will it work? Reports suggest that Elon Musk is eyeing up a merger involving SpaceX, Tesla and xAI, but what does he hope to achieve by consolidating his business empire? Elon Musk is a busy man, heading up multiple billion-dollar companies. While he is increasingly a divisive figure, there is no doubt that Tesla and SpaceX, his two most important ventures, have done much to advance the future of electric cars and spacecraft, respectively. But a series of corporate moves this week suggests Musk has a new vision of the future - and he may be combining all his companies to get there.