1X'S NEO HITS 22 KPH IN SUPERHUMAN SPEED REEL

22.3 kilometers an hour. That is 1X Technologies listed top running speed for NEO, the humanoid robot the Norwegian startup is now shipping out of a factory in Hayward, California. A new tendon driven hand moves even faster, closing on an object at 8.0 meters a second, quick enough that the fingers finish before a human nervous system catches up. 1X titled the demo reel Superhuman Speed. Most of the numbers back the name.

NEO is not a lab prototype chasing hype anymore. It is a $20,000 consumer product with a production line, a subscription option, and an OpenAI check behind its earliest funding round. The speed claims are the first hard evidence that 1X is building something faster than a highlight reel.

1X Says NEO's Hands Move at 8.0 Meters a Second

1X unveiled a redesigned tendon driven hand for NEO in July 2026, built around 25 points of articulation and tactile sensors in every fingertip. The company says the fingers can close at up to 8.0 meters a second, fast enough to catch a falling glass before it clears the counter.

The demos so far include picking grapes without crushing them, threading a light bulb into a socket, and forming sign language letters. Those are fine motor tasks, not sprinting, and fine motor speed is where a machine can genuinely outrun a person. Human reaction time to a visual stimulus averages around 0.25 seconds. NEO's hand does not wait to react. It is already moving.

NEO Beta Sprinted at 12 Kilometers an Hour. This One Runs Faster.

The earlier NEO Beta prototype topped out at 12 kilometers an hour in a sprint and walked at 4. The production version 1X is shipping now runs at 6.2 meters a second, about 22.3 kilometers an hour, nearly double the prototype's best sprint from two years earlier.

Typical walking speed is closer to 1.4 meters a second, the pace 1X expects NEO to use inside an actual house. The sprint number is the marketing spec. The walking number is the one that matters for a robot meant to carry laundry through a hallway without knocking over a lamp.

$20,000 Buys a Robot in Three Colorways

NEO costs $20,000 to buy outright or $499 a month on subscription, reserved with a $200 refundable deposit when preorders opened on October 28, 2025. It ships in tan, gray, and dark brown, three colorways, the kind of language a sneaker brand uses, not a home appliance company.

1X's earliest institutional backer was the OpenAI Startup Fund, a $23.5 million check in 2023, followed by a $100 million Series B in 2024 led by EQT Ventures and Samsung NEXT. That OpenAI money landed years before Sam Altman and Elon Musk were trading accusations over a separate Apple antitrust suit, a reminder that OpenAI's bets extend well past chatbots.

22 Kilometers an Hour Is Not Actually Superhuman

Usain Bolt's recorded top speed is roughly 44.7 kilometers an hour, almost double the cap 1X put on NEO's legs. On raw ground speed, the headline claim undersells itself. An average human jogger already lands close to NEO's number, and a trained sprinter blows past it without trying.

The honest superhuman claim lives in the hands, not the legs. An 8.0 meter a second finger close beats human reflex by a wide margin, and that is the number worth watching, not the running speed a decent recreational jogger could match on a good morning.

Warehouses Just Became NEO's Second Customer

1X signed a deal in December 2025 to place its humanoids in factories and warehouses, not just living rooms, confirmed in TechCrunch's reporting on the agreement. The same tendon hands and leg speed built for folding laundry are now being pitched for logistics floor work.

It is a familiar move in physical automation. Build for the home, sell to the warehouse first, because warehouses pay before consumers do. The same instinct is driving Anduril's autonomous aircraft toward its first live missile test instead of a living room, proof that speed and autonomy are being commercialized on every surface at once, air included.

Call this early, not overhyped. A tendon hand that closes at 8.0 meters a second and a production line already running in Hayward put 1X further along than most of the humanoid field, and the $20,000 price undercuts competitors still quoting contact us instead of a number. The hand speed checks out. The leg speed describes a decent human jog with better branding. NEO's real test is not how fast it moves in a reel. It is whether one California factory can ship enough units to make Superhuman Speed mean something besides a caption.