Humanoid Robots Are Right here… and Embarrassingly Dangerous at Being Our Servants

People are determined to put the robots to work. The one drawback is, the robots don’t “work” to any diploma. These humanoid bots are attention-grabbing. Some are even cute. Few, if any, are anyplace near prime time. It was a dour scene at CES 2026, a lot so I can’t assist however marvel in the event that they ever might be.

The home robots that headlined past CES could already be on their method to the scrap heap. Final week, Bloomberg reported that Samsung’s famed Ballie home robot was successfully lifeless. The corporate supplied an announcement that the robotic would “inform” how Samsung works with spatial consciousness and good residence intelligence. The bot itself was nowhere to be discovered at CES 2026. Latest reviews citing robotic corporations themselves question whether humanoid robots are the subsequent huge tech boondoggle. China, the one place that’s undoubtedly forward of the remainder of the world on robotics, officially cited a lot of copycat corporations making spinoff, ineffective bots. The lingering query is whether or not any of the robots might be able to doing something helpful.

The AGIBOT X2 doing kung-fu is fairly cute! #CES2026 pic.twitter.com/kpOLtmaJJX

— Ray Wong (@raywongy) January 6, 2026

Just as we predicted, CES 2026 was consumed with residence robotics. What stunned us extra was what number of had the arms, heads, and even legs that corporations hope will ultimately substitute us. Sadly, the robo-maids and robo-butlers usually tend to fall down on you or spin uncontrollably than fold your laundry. All through all the present, once they weren’t being managed remotely or working off choreographed strikes, these robots flailed, fell down, and broke solely on their very own. It was a comical and embarrassing sight for attendees.

Why had been all of the bots always breaking down?

Murphy’s Legislation dictates that any dwell demo will inevitably be cursed with unhealthy connections or gear that received’t work irrespective of what number of instances you examined it within the lab. The variety of robots on the fritz on the CES present ground went past occasional points. I visited SwitchBot’s sales space the primary day the CES present ground opened to take a look at its Onero H1 humanoid robotic. The H1 is meant to be a family machine with two articulating arms and a cute, always-surprised face. It’s meant to deal with duties like feeding the dishwasher or brewing espresso. On the sales space, a SwitchBot consultant advised me the Onero H1 was, sadly, not absolutely functioning. All it may do was spin forwards and backwards like a confused toddler caught in a playpen it had by no means seen earlier than.

That’s to not say the humanoid robots remained damaged all through all the present. When it was working, the H1 would slowly drag a shirt over to a washer, slowly open the door, and slowly stick it in. I strode over to LG’s sales space to take a look at CLOiD, one other residence robotic with articulating fingers constructed for chores like folding laundry. The bot was, certainly, gingerly pinching a stack of towels and folding every with agonizing lethargy. At one level, the CLOiD appeared to hiccup in its routine. A lot of LG workers shortly surrounded the bot, and one other jumped in entrance of me whereas I tried to movie it. The corporate seemingly managed to repair no matter present points had been inflicting the disruption, as CLOiD was again later, folding a mountain of laundry with Sisyphean dedication.

Many times, the bots at CES 2026 did not carry out autonomously. We’ve seen movies of robots doing dance routines and going stiff and falling down, solely to develop into belligerent once they get again up. In a video the place The Verge was displaying off Zeroth’s Jupiter humanoid robotic, the 170-pound machine stopped working and flopped face ahead instantly onto journalist Jennifer Pattison Tuohy. With out anyone holding it up and directing it, these bots with decrease appendages are extra liable to sprawl on the bottom when one thing malfunctions. Think about if Tesla’s long-awaited, long-delayed Optimus 3 robotic, specced at simply over 125 kilos, suddenly decides to use your feet as its landing platform.

To maintain these units from crushing legs, these humanoid bots are higher off on wheels. Intel rolled out a 6-foot-tall humanoid bot by RoBee with curler skates completely hooked up to its ft. Aside from shifting at a sluggish tempo, the robotic powered by Intel’s newest Core Ultra Series 3 know-how was largely only a automobile for a chatbot to speak to CES attendees. The opposite robots taking on house on the present ground had been largely stationary or caught on wheels. One humanoid bot known as TomO was caught in place enjoying the piano one key at a time due to oddly articulating thumbs and fingers. Extra automatons by corporations like Galbot may act as checkout clerks, utilizing a suction cup to seize empty snack containers and produce them to the counter.

Our favourite bots aren’t serving to round the home

These are the sorts of capabilities we’ve got seen in earlier years. That’s to not say that staggered, common development isn’t one thing to be applauded. Some robotics corporations, like Sharpa, confirmed off bots able to monitoring a ping pong ball and hitting it again with solely the occasional flub. One other one of many firm’s bots could possibly be the extraordinarily sluggish vendor in a recreation of blackjack.

Apparently, the one factor these bots are good for is choreographed fights or for squaring up within the boxing ring. Unitree, one of many few corporations that guarantees to sell a relatively affordable humanoid robot, introduced out its boxing robots to the present ground. These bots are spectacular, largely for a way effectively they reply to being knocked to the bottom or stumble to outlive a punch.

The technical work executed on these units is way extra attention-grabbing than the bots’ sensible capabilities. Judging by what we noticed at CES 2026, bipedal robotics are nowhere close to as succesful as corporations promise they are going to be. Hell, they don’t meet their restricted promise at this time. The perfect residence chore robots will proceed to be your belligerent youngsters. They received’t wish to fold their garments, however you possibly can assure they may do it quicker than any robotic present at this time.