# Inside Silicon Valley's Race to Build a Home Robot Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728/inside-silicon-valley-s-race-to-build-a-home-robot Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728/inside-silicon-valley-s-race-to-build-a-home-robot.md Podcast: [KQED's Forum](https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728) Published: 2026-07-24T18:51:00+00:00 Episode link: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC4068651160.mp3 Audio file: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC4068651160.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kqed-s-forum-910728/episodes/inside-silicon-valley-s-race-to-build-a-home-robot Duration seconds: 3283 ## Resource When investigative journalist Stephen Witt visited Silicon Valley’s 1X Technologies to meet a new home robot named Neo, he discovered a device full of contradictions: It was elegantly designed, but often struggled to complete even the simplest of tasks, taking longer than a minute to retrieve a bottle of water. Despite its limitations, more than 10,000 people have placed deposits for the $20,000 android, and Neo is just one of a dozen humanoid robots scheduled for release in the next year. We talk to Witt about the appeal – and challenges – of home robots and how quickly the technology is actually advancing. Guest: Stephen Witt, investigative journalist; author Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kqed-s-forum-910728/episodes/inside-silicon-valley-s-race-to-build-a-home-robot/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728/inside-silicon-valley-s-race-to-build-a-home-robot.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.