Honda's new self-driving robot looks really familiar
Honda showed off a slick new Sports EV concept at the Tokyo Motor Show earlier this week, but the automaker's most charming future-forward design to debut at the event isn't something you'll ever take for a drive.
The Japanese company unveiled the RoboCas concept, an all-electric, self-driving cargo robot that looks like the offspring of the bot couple from Disney's WALL-E.
Just take a look at the family resemblance:
There's not a ton of information about the RoboCas concept in terms of specs, so we don't know how long its battery might last or what type of system enables the self-driving functionality beyond a reference to "Honda's autonomous mobility technology." Honda instead described the bot as a companion that was "born to make each person’s ideas and dreams come true."
The RoboCas concept is similar to other autonomous machines from companies like Vespa-maker Piaggio, which makes a companion cargo bot on wheels called the Gita. Postmates and DoorDash started using wheeled machines from Starship Technologies in pilot programs for self-driving deliveries back in January, sending the robots out on the streets of Washington, D.C. and Redwood City, California, respectively.
Honda's concept looks to be more sophisticated than the delivery bots, but the automaker didn't announce any plans for wide-scale production. You'll have to wait to play out your wildest WALL-E fantasies until the design is green-lit beyond concept status.
Topics Artificial Intelligence
Brett Williams is a Tech Reporter at Mashable. He writes about tech news, trends and other tangentially related topics with a particular interest in wearables and exercise tech. Prior to Mashable, he wrote for Inked Magazine and Thrillist. Brett's work has also appeared on Fusion and AskMen, to name a few. You can follow Brett on Twitter @bdwilliams910.
