Seventy two years after launching the iconic Vespa scooter, Italian motor vehicle company Piaggio has unveiled its newest creation: A robot designed to help you get around without a car at all. Piaggio Fast Forward, Piaggio's American sibling established in 2015, has been testing the Gita, a two-foot-high, two-wheeled mobile carrying robot, out of its Boston offices for a while now. The company has not yet disclosed a price, but it could start popping up in businesses and construction sites as soon as early 2019. The company's hope with them is to encourage walking, by eliminating the need for people to need their cars to lug stuff around. The company's motto is "autonomy for humans" -- in other words, creating autonomous products in the service of humans, not replacing them.

The company has dubbed its squat version of R2D2 "a pet with superpowers" and it will hit the market next year. "It's not about replacing human functions; it's about expanding and augmenting human functions," said Jeffrey Schnapp, chief executive of Piaggio Fast Forward. "Gita is a small vehicle that has machine intelligence that can navigate the world just like you can." It tops out at 22 mph, fast enough to keep up with a bike, but is currently limited to 11 mph, and can carry up to 40 pounds. Packed with cameras and sensors, the Gita can roll after an owner, following along down the sidewalk.