July 29, 2026 at 10:25
/BY
KORBEN ✨/4 MIN READ/Related categories
The FCC (the US Federal Communications Commission) updated its Covered List yesterday – that is, the registry of equipment barred from authorization in the United States. The list started with Huawei in 2021 and has since grown to include companies like Hikvision, Dahua, Kaspersky, and a range of foreign consumer drones and routers.
Well, 2 new categories have just been added: connected uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and “advanced robotic devices” manufactured abroad. An “advanced robotic device” is defined as a mobile machine that navigates around obstacles, can be remotely controlled or responds to its sensors, and weighs more than 4.4 pounds including its charging station – roughly 2 kg for the whole package.
It also needs to be equipped with an environmental sensor, a network connection of at least 200 kbps, and software that controls its navigation. As you’ve probably guessed, the humanoid robots and quadrupeds mentioned in the press are examples, not an exhaustive scope. This could very well apply to something as simple as a robot vacuum.
Yep – just check your household robot’s specs… Weight, sensor, Wi-Fi, floor-mapping. It ticks every box, you’ll see! As for the exemptions written into the rule, they cover connected cars, trains, drones, and medical equipment. So nothing about domestic appliances.
And without FCC authorization, it’s a nightmare for the manufacturer, because a radio device cannot be imported, marketed, or sold in the United States.
The stated reason is, as usual: national security. “Advanced robotic devices collect data that could be exploited by malicious actors to surveil Americans, enhance the capabilities of foreign intelligence services, or to remotely take control of robots.“
It’s kind of like a GDPR for Americans ^^.
But at the same time, they’re not wrong… I remember that developer who hacked his vacuum cleaner to control it with a PS5 controller and
ended up with access to 7,000 vacuums across 24 countries
, camera feeds, microphones, and apartment floor plans included!
There are even regular exploits dropping that let someone take control of a humanoid robot, then scan for other robots within range and spread on their own… Axios broke the story of
a pre-installed backdoor in robot dogs
, which opened up the camera feed and gave full control of the machine.
That said, this new measure only applies to new models. That means robots already authorized can continue to be imported, sold, and used. In short, all those machines whose vulnerabilities were used to justify the ban are staying exactly where they are – in people’s homes.
And there’s even a workaround to avoid the block, since a foreign manufacturer can apply for a “conditional approval” from the Department of Defense. Those who get the stamp will keep their access to the US market for as long as it takes to relocate their production to the US. Pretty clever ^^.
According to Counterpoint Research, cited by Reuters, the biggest loser would unsurprisingly be Unitree, the Chinese manufacturer of robot dogs and humanoids, and an Nvidia partner. The company has a colorful track record, between
a firmware whose encryption key ended up going public
and the repeated vulnerabilities in its quadrupeds.
But as you’ve gathered, what matters here is the factory, not the owner’s flag. Boston Dynamics is majority-owned by South Korea’s Hyundai and sails through without a scratch, because its machines come out of American factories. Not to mention the potential big winner: Tesla and its humanoid factory that’s been promised for months now.
And as I mentioned at the start of the article, UPS units are also affected but are flying under the media radar, even though they’re present in far more homes. UPS units are less sexy than humanoid robots, sure, but plenty of them have remote connectivity that would allow foreign companies to shut them down, exfiltrate data, or open up access for surveillance.
In short, this American blacklist casts a wide net – all the way to the robot in your living room – and it’s going to cause some serious headaches for Asian manufacturers that were counting on the US market to grow.
- https://wccftech.com/fcc-blacklists-foreign-robots-on-huawei-list-as-surveillance-fears-grow-striking-nvidia-partner-unitree-as-well/
- https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/07/29/america-bans-imported-robots-due-to-supply-chain-and-security-risks/5280145
- https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-786A1.pdf
This article was originally written in French and automatically translated. Read the original.
This article may contain AI-generated images. I take great care with every article, but if you spot a slip-up, let me know!
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