The company behind Vespa built a cargo robot that follows you around
In the future, we won't just have autonomous drones zooming around over our heads — we'll share the sidewalks with rolling robots, tasked with delivering our groceries and carrying our stuff.
A new robot from Piaggio (best known for Vespa scooters) keeps the autonomous focus firmly on solid ground. The company's fledgling autonomous mobility division, Piaggio Fast Forward, has unveiled its first project: the Gita, a two-wheeled personal cargo bot straight out of the Star Wars droid factory.
The Gita's designed for a different use than sky-bound delivery drones — its directive is to follow a human, or to move autonomously along pathways it's already traveled. There are already some similarly self-driving droids from Starship Technologies roving the streets making Postmates deliveries in a few cities.
The Gita can serve the same purpose — but the bot looks to be focused on personal cargo hauling for the moment. It's more of an assistant than a free-roving bot, although it can move independently and avoid obstacles in real time using its built-in sensors and cameras, which it uses in "Follow" mode to lock on to its human guide.
The orb-shaped Gita is 26 inches tall and can carry loads up to 40 pounds, with a storage volume of about 2,000 cubic inches. Its battery can last up to eight hours of continuous use at walking speeds — but it dies quicker if you really push it up to its 22 miles per hour max speed if you're literally running late somewhere or riding a bike.
The lid has a fingerprint-enabled security lock, along with a touchscreen to program its movements. Security might be a concern if the Gita is in autonomous mode without a human guide -- a cargo bot moving on its own is practically an invitation to brazen thieves.
Piaggio Fast Forward COO Sasha Hoffman isn't concerned about the potential risk. She told TechCrunch, “Gita is also covered with cameras, and sensors and always knows where it is. It’d be the dumbest thing in the world to try to steal or break into.”
The Boston-based team behind the Gita is looking to roll the bot out onto real-life streets for pilot tests to gather more navigational data on college campuses and selected towns across the U.S. over the next six months, according to the report. Once the system is better developed, we could all have a shot at owning our own personal cargo droid.
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.
