Humanoid Robots Are Here… and Embarrassingly Bad at Being Our Servants - Gizmodo
The home robots that headlined past CES may already be on their way to the scrap heap. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Samsung’s famed Ballie home robot was effectively dead.
Key takeaways
The most recent developments in humanoid robotics show a mix of promising deployments and persistent technical hurdles. In mid‑January, UK‑based Humanoid and Siemens completed a proof‑of‑concept at Siemens’ electronics factory in Erlangen, where the wheeled HMND 01 Alpha robot logged continuous autonomous operation for over 30 minutes, moved 60 totes per hour and ran for more than eight hours without interruption, demonstrating that humanoid‑type platforms can meet industrial‑logistics metrics. Around the same time, AI‑focused startup 1X unveiled a “world model” that lets its Neo humanoid learn tasks directly from video captured by the robot itself, reducing reliance on human tele‑operators and promising broader generalisation of actions. At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, several manufacturers displayed bipedal assistants, but demonstrations were plagued by stability and perception glitches, underscoring that current home‑service robots remain far from reliable. Industry analysts at the International Federation of Robotics noted that such setbacks are offset by accelerating shipments: AGIBOT reported shipping more than 5,100 humanoid units in 2025, contributing to a total global shipment of roughly 13 000 units that year and fueling forecasts that annual deliveries could reach 2.6 million by 2035. Meanwhile, Chinese firm UBTECH’s 2025 rollout of over 1,000 Walker S2 units to factories illustrates the first large‑scale commercial use of fully autonomous, object‑handling humanoids, even as broader adoption is still in its early stages. Together, these stories indicate that while large‑scale manufacturing integration is gaining traction, everyday consumer applications and robust performance at public demos remain significant challenges for the sector.
The home robots that headlined past CES may already be on their way to the scrap heap. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Samsung’s famed Ballie home robot was effectively dead. The company offered a statement that the robot would “inform” how Samsung works with spatial awareness and smart home intelligence. The bot itself was nowhere to be found at CES 2026. Recent reports citing robot companies themselves question whether humanoid robots are the next big tech boondoggle. China, the one place that is definitely ahead of the rest of the world on robotics, officially cited a number of copycat companies making derivative, useless bots. The lingering question is whether any of the robots will be capable of doing anything useful. The technical work done on these devices is far more interesting than the bots’ practical capabilities. Judging by what we saw at CES 2026, bipedal robotics are nowhere near as capable as companies promise they will be. Hell, they don’t meet their limited promise today. The best home chore robots will continue to be your belligerent children. They won’t want to fold their clothes, but you can guarantee they will do it faster than any robot existing today.
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