Robot capabilities
What can robots actually do today?
Robots verifiably do narrow jobs today; general-purpose home help is still a demo. Robots verifiably do specific, narrow jobs today: driving robotaxis, delivering on sidewalks, moving goods in warehouses, assisting surgeons, and vacuuming homes. DEPLOY reads each from reviewed registry records. What is still only claimed is the general-purpose robot: a humanoid that does your housework, or a car you own driving itself unsupervised. Those are maker demos, attributed to their makers, not verified deployed capabilities.
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The honest answer splits in two. There is a real, growing list of specific jobs that robots verifiably do today, and a separate list of things that look impressive in a demo video but are not yet a capability you can rely on.
On the verified side, read live from DEPLOY's reviewed records: robotaxis carry paying passengers with no one in the driver seat in mapped cities, sidewalk and road robots deliver food and parcels, mobile robots move and pick goods across warehouses, surgical robots assist surgeons through operations under the surgeon's control, and robot vacuums clean floors in homes. Each of these is a narrow job, done in a controlled or well-mapped setting, and each is backed by dated, sourced records on the registry.
On the claimed side is the thing most people picture when they hear the word robot: a general-purpose machine that just handles life. Figure, 1X, and others show humanoids folding laundry and loading dishwashers, and 1X sells a home humanoid, but the demonstrated home tasks have been run with a remote human operator, so this is demonstrated and claimed rather than deployed. And while robotaxis run driverless as a fleet, a car you own still ships with driver assistance: Tesla itself brands its system Full Self-Driving (Supervised) and says it needs a fully attentive driver.
So what can robots actually do today? A lot, in narrow lanes, verifiably. Just not yet the general-purpose helper the demos promise. Everything here is dated and attributed, so you can judge each claim yourself.
What robots verifiably do today
Each row is read live from DEPLOY’s reviewed registry: the deployments and models it actually holds for that capability, with a real example record. These are narrow, specific jobs, done in controlled or well-mapped settings.
| Capability | Status | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
Carry paying passengers with no one in the driver seat DEPLOY holds 95 reviewed deployments across 41 reviewed robotaxi models, for example Apollo RT6 by Baidu. Each is a dated, sourced record. | On the record | Jul 26, 2026 | |
Deliver food and parcels on sidewalks and city streets DEPLOY holds 53 reviewed deployments across 20 reviewed delivery robot models, for example Amazon Scout by Amazon. Each is a dated, sourced record. | On the record | Jul 26, 2026 | |
Move, sort, and pick goods across warehouses and logistics sites DEPLOY holds 50 reviewed deployments across 77 reviewed warehouse mobile robot models, for example Amazon Robotics fleet by Amazon. Each is a dated, sourced record. | On the record | Jul 26, 2026 | |
Assist a surgeon through an operation, under the surgeon's control DEPLOY holds 39 reviewed deployments across 44 reviewed surgical robot models, for example CORI by Smith+Nephew. Each is a dated, sourced record. | On the record | Jul 26, 2026 | |
Vacuum and mop floors in homes on their own DEPLOY holds 1 reviewed deployment across 67 reviewed robot vacuum models, for example D8 by Neato Robotics. Each is a dated, sourced record. | On the record | Jul 26, 2026 |
What is still only claimed
The general-purpose robot most people picture is not here yet. Each row is a maker’s demonstration or product claim, attributed to the maker and dated to its source. None is a DEPLOY-verified capability.
| Claimed capability | Status | Who (attributed) | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Be a general-purpose helper around the house Figure, 1X, and others show humanoids folding laundry, loading dishwashers, and tidying in demo videos, and 1X sells NEO for the home. Figure calls its Helix laundry folding the first fully autonomous instance. Independent reporting found NEO's demonstrated home tasks were run with a remote human operator in a VR headset, so general-purpose home help is demonstrated and claimed, not a verified deployed capability. | Demonstrated, not deployed | Figure and 1X (maker demos and product pages), Fortune | Feb 26, 2026 (as reported) | |
Drive a car you own with no one watching the road The driverless service that verifiably runs today is the robotaxi, operated as a mapped fleet (the verified row above). In a privately owned car the shipping product is driver assistance: Tesla brands its system Full Self-Driving (Supervised) and states it requires a fully attentive driver and does not make the vehicle autonomous. Unsupervised self-driving in a car you own is not a verified deployed capability. | Supervised, not autonomous | Tesla (Full Self-Driving Supervised), reported by InsideEVs | Dec 5, 2025 (as reported) |
Verified in lanes, not in general
Each column is attributed to who holds the position. What DEPLOY verifies is narrow and real; what the makers claim is the general-purpose robot; and the honest bottom line sits between them.
Narrow jobs, done today
Robotaxis carry passengers driverless, delivery robots work sidewalks and roads, mobile robots run warehouses, surgical robots assist operations, and robot vacuums clean floors. Each is read live from reviewed registry records, dated and sourced.
The general-purpose robot
Figure, 1X, and others demonstrate humanoids doing housework, and 1X sells a home humanoid. Those are demos and product claims attributed to their makers, and the home tasks have relied on remote human operators.
Verified in lanes, not in general
Robots verifiably do a growing list of narrow jobs. A general-purpose helper that runs your home, or a car you own driving itself unsupervised, is not a verified deployed capability. DEPLOY records each new capability as and when it lands on the record.
How we know this
The verified column is read live from DEPLOY's reviewed registry: for each capability a query counts the reviewed deployment and model records and names a real example record. The claimed column is attributed to the makers who demonstrated or announced each thing, with the primary source for every row. Here are the sources behind them.
The verified capabilities are backed by reviewed registry records read at render. The claimed capabilities are maker demonstrations and product claims, attributed to their makers, not figures DEPLOY verifies. DEPLOY does not sell robots or software; it checks the record and links every source.
Common questions
What jobs can robots do today?
Can robots do household chores yet?
Can a robot drive a car by itself?
What can robots NOT do yet?
Are humanoid robots useful yet?
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