The new robots of 2026, tracked.
This is the running log of 2026's humanoid milestones — the launches, price moves, and production signals that actually change what you can buy. Bookmark it; it updates as the year unfolds.
2026 so far: the milestones that matter
Unitree completed the industry's first humanoid IPO — significant less for the ticker than for what the capital does: China's volume leader now has public-market fuel for a price war. Tesla converted Model S/X production lines to Optimus manufacturing, the strongest physical evidence yet that its robot ambitions are industrial reality rather than keynote material. 1X's NEO home pilot kept expanding, quietly normalizing the strangest idea in consumer tech: a humanoid that just... lives at your house. And Figure's logistics deployments crossed the hundreds-of-thousands-of-packages threshold with a clean reliability record — the capability high-water mark the home market inherits next.
What to watch next
The three signals that would change our buying advice overnight: Tesla opening any form of Optimus reservation system; 1X converting its pilot into open ordering; and any credible sub-$10,000 humanoid from a Chinese manufacturer reaching Western consumers with real support. Any of those flips this from an early-adopter market to a mainstream one — and this page will say so the day it happens.