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FCC, the agency that certifies Wi Fi routers, is using its equipment authorization tool to police humanoids, four legged robots, and robot vacuums. US teams are split on whether the tool fits the risk.
The Federal Communications Commission acted Tuesday to effectively shut the door on new foreign-made "advanced robotic devices," covering humanoids (bipedal human-shaped machines like Tesla's planned Optimus), quadrupeds (four-legged robots), and even some robot vacuums (Business Insider). The same regulatory tool the FCC uses to certify wireless devices — a mechanism the agency has used to authorize radios and Wi-Fi equipment — is now the lever for policing a market where Chinese firms already ship roughly 90% of the world's humanoids, according to analyst firm Omdia.
That's why the US robotics industry is split. The security concern is real. The tool doesn't match the risk, operators say, and the operators who actually deploy these machines have a specific alternative in mind.
AJ Meyer, whose Pickle Robot company builds unloading robots for logistics, takes the security concern seriously. Chinese hardware is useful; the risks are also real. "I would never put a Unitree robot into a customer site and hook it up to the internet as it comes out of the box," Meyer said, referring to Chinese robotics firm Unitree, whose quadrupeds retail for as little as $3,000 and whose entry-level humanoids start around $6,000 before tariffs. He would modify the software and connectivity first. But Meyer argued the FCC's broad import ban only benefits a small group of domestic manufacturers. Product labeling, security certification, and liability rules would address the same risks without cutting small US teams and university labs off from affordable hardware.
Vedant Nair sees the cost directly. "This will severely hamper their ability to build useful products," he said of US startups.
Most American humanoids are still in development and not available off the shelf, so direct price comparison is hard. Elon Musk has estimated it could eventually cost Tesla between $20,000 and $25,000 to manufacture Optimus once production scales; Optimus' retail price isn't public, and the figure is a forward-looking manufacturing estimate, not a sticker price. For US teams working on the same problems Chinese firms are already shipping, that gap matters more than the abstract national-security frame implies.
The split inside the industry is partly a split over what kind of policy tool fits the problem. American manufacturers welcomed protection from subsidized Chinese rivals. Startups and researchers warned that losing access to the bottom of the hardware stack could leave the US further behind in a market China already dominates. Both positions rest on the same fact: the price of entry is set in Shenzhen, not Silicon Valley.
The FCC's move isn't a flat ban. Previously authorized models are unaffected, and manufacturers can apply for conditional approval. That detail is part of why the security-versus-access debate is the live one, not a settled fight. The agency picked a tool, the industry is split on whether the tool is shaped right, and the operators who actually deploy the hardware have already named three policy levers they say would fit: labeling, certification, and liability.
The signal to watch: whether the FCC's conditional-approval window opens narrowly enough for small teams and university labs to keep sourcing the hardware they currently depend on, or whether the door effectively closes for everyone except the largest domestic buyers.