With Gita Bot, Piaggio wanted to put its own spin on the rideshare and autonomous vehicle boom, Lin said.
Americans tend to walk a mile or less, he noted. People may be discouraged from taking long walks if they're sporting, say, a heavy backpack, Lin says. But he thinks a cargo-carrying robot could encourage people to walk distances instead of driving or hitchhiking. buzz feed trends
"When it might be a mile and a half each way, people say, 'You know, I've got to carry this thing,'" Lynn says. "We're focused on these types of environments where a lot of people are moving around and doing long distances."
For example, if you have a cargo-carrying robot that's trained to navigate crowded areas, it might be easier to get to a slightly distant Trader Joe's through a path full of pedestrians.
Instead of trying to adapt self-driving vehicle technology to sidewalks and predict how pedestrians will react, Lin and his colleagues took to the streets and studied how people move around the world.
PFF recruits people to walk six hours a day on custom-built sets that feature real-life obstacles like slopes, terrain changes and doors. The company even tests with obstacles like dogs, children and suitcases that could block Gita in an elevator, for example.
The Gita line is an example of expensive tracking robots that are increasingly appearing in our daily lives. You've seen the creepy but hilarious NightScope robot that patrols areas like malls and neighborhoods. It has been criticized for its questionable effectiveness and invasive methods of data collection
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