The Truth About Humanoid Robot Startups in 2026

3 years in the humanoid space here. The demo videos you see are 100-take cherry-picked moments. Reality: battery life is still 2-4 hours, manipulation failure rate 15-30%, and cost per unit is $80K-$250K. Most startups are burning cash at unsustainable rates. The ones that will survive are those partnering with manufacturing, not chasing general-purpose hype. Tesla and Figure are the only ones with real factory deployments.