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A24 technology
Tuesday 26 November 2019
Grocery-carrying robots are coming. Do we need them?

By MATT O'BRIEN Amazon is experiment-
AP Technology Writer ing with a similar-looking
BOSTON (AP) — The first car- machine that delivers re-
go-carrying robot market- tail goods in a handful of
ed directly to consumers is U.S. neighborhoods. FedEx
on sale this holiday season. is testing its own delivery
But how many people are rover in partnership with
ready to ditch their second Pizza Hut, Walmart, Target
car to buy a two-wheeled and Walgreens. Ford has
rover that can follow them showed off a gangly two-
around like a dog? legged robot to carry items
Corporate giants like Ama- to homes. So far, none are
zon, FedEx and Ford have as far along as Starship,
already been experiment- which has hundreds of its
ing with sending delivery machines already in ser-
robots to doorsteps. Now vice.
Piaggio, the Italian com- While Forrester's Gownder
pany that makes the Ves- isn't impressed with the
pa scooter, is offering a Gita, he's bullish about
stylish alternative to those delivery robots of the Star-
blandly utilitarian machines ship variety because their
— albeit one that weighs 50 autonomy will help save
pounds (23 kilograms) and labor costs. Gownder said
costs $3,250. it's more of a question of
It's named the Gita (JEE'- whether ground-based rov-
tah) after the Italian word ers or aerial delivery drones
for a short, pleasurable Piaggio Fast Forward CEO Greg Lynn, center, is followed by his company's Gita carrier robot as he will prove more successful.
excursion — the kind you crosses a street on Monday, Nov. 11, in Boston. The wheeled cargo robots
might take to pick up some Associated Press that have already made it
lacinato kale and gourmet out into the wild have sig-
cheese at the farmers mar- go-carrying robot that's go- The Gita doesn't require a of Houston and the Univer- nificant limitations.
ket. Its creators have such ing to carry your groceries," phone or intrusive people- sity of Wisconsin-Madison Starship's machines still re-
trips in mind for the "hands- said Forrester technology tracking technology such rolled them out this fall. The quire plenty of manual su-
free carrier" that can hold analyst J.P. Gownder. as facial recognition or robots, which look like over- pervision to load them with
produce and other objects On a recent Novem- GPS. sized ice chests on wheels, food orders. They rely on re-
as it follows its owner down ber morning, Lynn was "It basically just locks onto can carry up to 20 pounds mote pilots to troubleshoot
a sidewalk. hunched over in a Boston you and tracks you," said (9 kilograms). navigation problems. Cus-
"We're trying to get you waterfront park, pushing Piaggio Fast Forward's "I love them. I think they're tomers also have to check
out into the world and a button that triggered a other co-founder, Jeffrey so cute!" University of a phone app to tell the
connected to that neigh- Gita to "see" him with its Schnapp. Houston freshman Sadie vehicle where to go and
borhood you decided to cameras and sensors. Then Other startups like Starship Garcia said as one of the to unlock the bin once it ar-
move to because it was so came a musical whirring Technologies have a more machines rolled up with a rives.
walkable," said Greg Lynn, sound as the device — a conventional business plan bagel sandwich she'd or- The Gita, meanwhile, might
CEO of Piaggio's tech-fo- squarish, bright red bucket for their own delivery ro- dered. She said she was still be impractical for many
cused subsidiary, Piaggio with two oversized wheels bots. The company charg- so cold she didn't want to people. It favors paved en-
Fast Forward. — rose up and signaled it es a delivery fee starting at leave her dorm. vironments that are dense
Tech industry analysts are was ready for a neighbor- $1.99 if you order its rovers Starship co-founder Ahti enough to have stores in
already declaring the Gita hood stroll. to bring you a Starbucks Heinla said his San Fran- walking distance, but not
as doomed to fail unless it A young boy in a stroller coffee or a lunch from Pan- cisco startup once looked so dense that the machines
finds a more practical ap- pointed excitedly. Anoth- da Express. at selling the machines di- get lost in the crowd.
plication, such as lugging er pedestrian asked to try So far, the best habitat to rectly to consumers, but And anyone who is simply
tools around warehouses, it, and playfully shouted find Starship's six-wheelers dropped the idea after looking to pull home gro-
hospitals or factory floors. "ah!" as it swerved around, are relatively confined realizing it would have to ceries without heavy lifting
"That's a lot of money for keeping in pursuit as she spaces such as college price them at more than can find durable wagons
what is in effect just a car- switched directions. campuses; the University $3,000. online for less than $100.q
Web inventor has an ambitious plan to take back the net

By FRANK BAJAK The product of a year's work however. And funders and said in an interview. "This is Independent, well-re-
AP Technology Writer by the World Wide Web partners in the endeavor the first time we've had a sourced regulators would
World Wide Web inventor Foundation where Berners- include Google and Face- rule book in which responsi- offer the public effective
Tim Berners-Lee released Lee is a founding director, book, whose data-collect- bility is being shared." means for redress. Current
an ambitious rule book for the " Contract for the Web ing business models and For instance, the contract laws and institutions don't
online governance — a bill " seeks commitments from sensation-rewarding algo- proposes a framework for measure up to that stan-
of rights and obligations for governments and industry rithms have been blamed protecting online privacy dard.
the internet — designed to make and keep knowl- for exacerbating online and personal data with Amnesty International just
to counteract the growing edge freely available — a toxicity. clearly defined national released a report charg-
prevalence of such anti- digital policy agenda true "We haven't had a fairly laws that give individuals ing that Google and Face-
democratic poisons as mis- to the design vision of the complex, fairly complete greater control over the book's business models are
information, mass surveil- 30-year-old web. plan of action for the web data collected about predicated on the abuse
lance and censorship. The contract is non-binding, going forward," Berners-Lee them. of human rights.q