[Animats]

Starship Technologies has a similar robot.[1] They asked the Redwood City city council for permission to operate this on Redwood City sidewalks. This was granted. Startship made a video of a delivery from La Tartine, which is a downtown bakery. But I asked the clerks at La Tartine, and they haven't seen the robot again since the video was made months ago.

Both Gita and Starship have the feel of a startup with a great video, but problems delivering the product.

These robots don't have the speed and range for a suburban environment, and they can't deal with doors, stairs, and elevators in apartment buildings. That leaves a narrow market niche.

[1] https://www.starship.xyz/ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW16O6UWtSc

[buzzybee]

I get the impression that Starship is doing test deployments in many different cities. The videos are probably indeed intended as press pushes, but they make a lot of them, they try a lot of different locations and conditions, and they interview generously and with a focus towards business value, which speaks to the underlying tech being sound in principle. I would be much more concerned if they were showing the same laboratory environments over and over or focused their videos on unsubstantial claims about the tech - they don't do either of those things. Here's some more recent coverage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GpaAF3_lKA

And while there are some obvious limitations to wheeled bots as a door-to-door courier system, the market for "personal luggage that follows you", which is more like what Gita is trying, could also be a pretty good one, and less ridiculous looking than "luggage you ride," [0] our current incumbent for luggage innovation. Having a bot stay by you has the gratifying feeling of having a pet or perhaps a servant.

These small scales and low speeds are much more amenable to experimenting, making mistakes, and ceding control than a highway-speed automation, as well. At worst, they're toys, but toys are often a good starting point for serious stuff too. It makes for very efficient R&D.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npEkbCmE31Y

[wcarss]

odd sighting: your first youtube link has a brief cameo of the scream mask in the stock footage of delivery trucks: https://youtu.be/1GpaAF3_lKA?t=31

[Animats]

"Golf cart that follows you" is a thing.[1] Those have been around for 10 years, and they sell modestly. Suitcases which follow you exist, but haven't caught on.

It might be useful to have a set of suitcases that would follow the user and each other like a train. That would be an amusing option for road cases for rock groups and trade shows.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0XwJCllGnY

[foota]

Seems like theft might be an important practical concern for autonomous delivery.

[Animats]

For Starship, they have a remote voice link to the thing, and if someone is messing with it, central control can yell at them or send siren sounds. It locks remotely; people can't just open it easily. Someone could steal the whole thing, but its location is known and it has already sent video of people approaching it. Besides, stealing from it probably just yields a pizza, a Chinese dinner, or some random groceries.

Redwood City is a good test site for this, because it has both good and bad neighborhoods close together. They can find out how much people will bother it.

[serf]

People will steal/vandalize it simply because it's strange and (probably) expensive itself, not only for the cargo.

For historic context see the early adoption woes of traffic and speed cameras.

A siren, cameras, and GPS feedback doesn't help against a molotov cocktail thrown with a mask, from around a corner, or high above; and lots of people don't like the idea of robots roaming the streets.

[amelius]

> lots of people don't like the idea of robots roaming the streets

OTOH, they are probably less of a nuisance than delivery trucks blocking the streets.

[jayjay71]

People might just destroy the robot for fun though.

http://www.iflscience.com/technology/hitchhiking-robot-manag...

I haven't thought through the economics on these systems, but there are enough startups working on it for me to think it must be a larger market than I realize. I wonder what the overhead is (how many robots you need to meet demand), how quickly they can deliver, and what other limitations they have (temperature control, weather resistance, ability to traverse stairs/elevators).

At what point do these machines become cheaper than humans? I understand that they are likely meant to be a supplement as opposed to a replacement, but until they can compete with humans there's not much of a business.

[crocowhile]

Piaggio is not exactly a startup but yeah, this gita may just be some kind of proof of principle product for a marketing stunt. If not, because I see no market for it.