NEO, the $20,000 Home Robot, Can’t Close a Dishwasher

So what exactly am I paying for?

By Peter Rapine

Published 6 days ago in Facepalm


The NEO home bot has been the topic of discussion for the last 24 hours, and after a heavy stream of memes dunking on the bot’s looks, rizz and possible brutal nature, people are realizing that NEO — which must be controlled by a remote operator — can’t really do much of anything.


For one, it can’t even close a dishwasher, one of the main chores its makers claim it was designed for. The Wall Street Journal got their hands on NEO and put it through rigorous tests having it complete some simple tasks around the house. In one test, the Journal asked NEO to load the dishwasher; it spent a total of five minutes stacking dishes before failing to successfully close the door.


In another test, NEO was asked to crush a walnut. It failed, trying to crack the nut on the edge of the tile counter. It was then asked to fetch its human a cup of water and, even though NEO was being controlled by a human with a VR headset, it had trouble simply opening the refrigerator door.


What exactly can NEO do? Nobody knows. 

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