The company behind the Vespa scooter has made its first move into autonomous transportation with a robotic personal helper that carries your belongings for you.
Gita is the first product launched by Piaggio Fast Forward, the Piaggio Group's innovation arm, launched in 2015 to "pioneer the intelligent movement of people and goods".

With an action reminiscent of Star Wars' R2-D2, the two-wheeled Gita can track its owner and roll along behind them. A lid in its top flips to reveal a storage bucket for cargo.
The electrically powered droid is also capable of operating autonomously in a mapped environment, so it can perform deliveries and pick-ups on its own.

In a series of YouTube videos called Innovation at Street Level, Piaggio demonstrates a number of potential uses for Gita, including carrying groceries at a market, picking up an order from a shop, assisting with stock at a warehouse, and even walking a dog. With a carrying capacity of 18 kilograms and a height of 66 centimetres, Gita is designed to operate on a human scale.

While it has some industrial applications, Piaggio is mainly positioning it as a personal mobility aid that frees people to "walk, run, pedal and skate through life" without potentially inhibitive cargo.
Its top speed is 35 kilometres per hour, which is about as fast as a human can sprint.

"We are developing products that augment and extend human capabilities, instead of simply seeking to replace them," said Piaggio ...