Like a DJ wrapping up a very tight set, the Tesla Optimus robotic reached to its ears and eliminated an invisible pair of headphones…and then keeled over, revealing, it appears, its teleoperation and, maybe, peeling again the curtain on the fiction of many cutting-edge humanoid robotics. It additionally makes clear what the speedy way forward for robotics holds, and it is neither as superior nor as dangerous as you have been anticipating.
That incident, caught on video when quite a few Tesla Optimus robots have been arrange as partaking bartenders who served drinks and chatted you up, however have been all probably managed by headset-wearing teleoperators, demonstrated what many individuals take into consideration many of the present bleeding-edge humanoid robots like Optimus, 1X Neo Bot, and Figure 03 from Determine AI: the best stuff they do is mere fiction.
If there was any question that Optimus uses teleop for their robots. Here one clearly has a guy take the headset off and it falls over.Absolutely hilarious though. pic.twitter.com/4gYVohjY00December 8, 2025
Entering the uncanny valley
Broadly speaking, I don’t expect 2026 to be the year of humanoid robots. They won’t be ready for the home, in part because they’ll still lack the requisite skill to match or surpass what we can do on our own.
However, while I’ve seen robot expectations pumped up to unrealistic levels, others think we got some dose of reality,
“In many ways, 2025 was the year that expectations about humanoid robots started coming down to Earth,” Brian Heater, Managing Editor for A3 (Affiliation for Advancing Automation), informed me through textual content.
A longtime colleague and pal, Heater has been overlaying robotics for many years and is now a part of the trade (he additionally has a newsletter and a podcast on the subject). So he is growing an insider’s view on the longer term and growth of shopper and manufacturing robots. There are nonetheless corporations which are, he informed me, “bullish in regards to the [humanoid] kind issue, however conversations have taken a extra pragmatic form with regard to efficacy and timelines.”
Heater isn’t the primary to inform me that many robotic corporations are contemplating swapping wheels for legs. Clearly, it is tougher to show a robotic to stroll (and not run into mirrors) than it’s for them to wheel round. Over time, I’ve seen many smaller shopper bots that stability on two wheels (the original Segway is one).
So the primary prediction for 2026 is that whereas we’ll see extra growth on the humanoid robotic facet, there could also be different corporations that transfer sooner, particularly within the manufacturing area with robots that characteristic humanoid or a minimum of dual-arm our bodies on prime and wheels on the underside.
Humanoid robots will creep slowly into properties (Heater sees the deployment “at very restricted scales”), however as I’ve written earlier than, few customers shall be able to shell out $20,000, even for a glimpse of our humanoid robotic future.
Remote control
If anything, 2026 will mark the year of the home-teleoperated robot. Early reports on the 1X Neo Betas indicate that most of what it can currently do is heavily reliant on teleoperation. Tesla Optimus robots, which do not have a clear timeline for home deployment, are also, it seems, more Christian than Cyrano, requiring remote control to keep the fiction of ability going.
The question for 2026 humanoid robot customers is how comfortable they are with a slow-moving, incredibly expensive product that requires almost constant remote access by a third-party company to perform even the most basic tasks.
Heater explained that one of the chief obstacles standing between these robots and wider adoption is mobile manipulation/dexterity.
“There’s not nearly enough data to train these systems,” wrote Heater, “UC Berkeley’s Ken Goldberg calls this the ‘100,000 year data gap,’ referring to the millennia of information that have been used to train LLMs, versus what physical AI currently has to go off of.”
Let’s go to the videotape
Heading into 2026, we’ve been fed a steady diet of incredible robot capability videos, showing them running, dancing, flipping, and even performing Karate moves. It set unrealistic expectations for our close to robotic future.
Heater even has a time period for this: “That is due, partially, to a phenomenon referred to as Moravec’s Paradox. Boiled down, it holds that some issues which are comparatively easy for people are advanced for AI and robots, and vice versa…Simply since you see a robotic do a backflip doesn’t imply it possesses the motor expertise to tie a tie (it probably doesn’t).”
1X, Tesla, and Determine AI will proceed making guarantees and movies depicting humanoid robots doing wonderful issues, however few customers will purchase them in 2026. These that may afford them will in a short time escort them to a closet the place they are going to sit, untouched within the darkness till archaeologists unearth them a millennium from now.
One firm I don’t anticipate to disappoint is Boston Dynamics. The humanoid robotic pioneer has by no means sought to promote its bots to customers and is way extra clear about its work; a latest video about why the all-electric robot stands up the way it does is particularly illuminating. As they clarify the video: “People form of get up with out fascinated about it, however robots really want to suppose.”
The ones who get it
In 2026, Boston Dynamics will unveil even more incredible robot athletic feats that will surely inspire robot fans and the industry, but it will be years before it sells Atlas to anyone except researchers.
Obviously, Boston Dynamics will also continue to update its Spot robot, which has proven up in factories and municipalities. That robotic faces rising competitors from corporations like Unitree.
2026 will see far better use of robots of every kind in manufacturing, fueled, partially, by enhancements in security. Heater informed me, “High companies within the area (and my present employers at A3) have been engaged on a new standard for these techniques to permit them to extra safely work alongside people exterior of a fenced-in setting.”
Which means as a substitute of extra movies of humanoid robots quietly working in closed-off areas on repetitive duties, we would lastly see some robots working safely alongside people who don’t have any worry of hurt, unintended or in any other case.
March of the mini bots
Leaving aside humanoids and factory bots, there will be a whole range of home, entertainment, and work robots, mostly building upon previous work, but with AI energizing innovation and capability.
Training simpler robots in a small set of tasks is easier than ever thanks to AI-supported visualization, which can help robots prepare for the unknown and even learn on the fly based on previous training and on-board models.
So, yes, robots in 2026 will not be as wild and exciting as you hoped, but it should set the stage for an important decade in robotics development.
As for that Tesla Optimus robot lying on its back, don’t worry. As soon as its operator put his headset back on, I’m sure Optimus returned to serving drinks, making small talk, and inspiring the next generation of roboticists.
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