I can’t justify paying over $2,500 for a robot that follows you around to carry a bag of groceries. But as soon as you slap on some Star Wars decals and give it R2-D2 beeps and bloops — well, the argument certainly changes.
The Giti Mini returns with a new Star Wars-themed version of the cargo-carrying robot, this time called the G1T4 M1N1, which you can see in action in the video embedded below. The hardware is generally the same: the self-balancing rolling bot uses cameras and sensors to follow its leader around, traveling up to 6 miles per hour and carrying a load of 20 pounds. But now, a few modifications make it appear to be an astromech droid from a galaxy far, far away.
Watch this: Piaggio G1T4-M1N1 May Be the Droid You’re Looking For
The original Gita Mini, released in 2021 by Piaggio Fast Forward, is priced at $2,475. This Star Wars version is $2,875. The extra $400 gets you decals with delightful droid sound effects (and yes it sounds just like R2-D2). If you have a bad feeling about that price, maybe stick with the original and throw on some of your own decals and make your own beeps.
The Gita Mini can carry various objects with the lid open or shut — the lid doesn’t lock. So while it’s handy for carrying your collection of Star Wars novels, I wouldn’t put anything valuable in there, such as Death Star plans.
All Giti Mini units are built with a Bluetooth speaker for blasting your favorite John Williams jams, and there’s a galactic-regulation USB-A port for charging your data pad.
I spent a couple of hours with the new model in the CNET office. It was my second time hanging out with a Gita robot — the first was a larger prototype back in 2017. I was impressed at how the new M1N1 weaved through obstacles and took tight turns as I walked around. But it was also tempting to mess with its camera sensors. The sensor is supposed to visually imprint on the legs of its leader to follow you from a close distance. It imprints the moment you press a touchpad on the front.
I was wearing blue jeans. Other colleagues wearing blue jeans would trick the bot into following them, so the G1T4 M1N1 was easily fooled into abandoning its directive to follow me.
In another attempt to trick the droid, I put a rolling office chair in front the camera when I told it to imprint to a leader. It then believed the office chair was its new master, and followed the chair wherever it rolled. What can I say, I’m a reviewer who likes to mess with tech, and droids were made to suffer.
The cargo bin can carry up to 20 lbs, measuring at 17.9 x 16.5 x 18.9 inches — a bit too small for most of my lightsabers.
It’s also very easy to pick up, weighing just about 26 pounds when empty, which is handy if you need to adjust it. I’m not sure you might use it every day for errands if you’re worried about other people messing around with it. But it is a delightful way to have a Star Wars collectible that can do some work for you. Although lets be honest — you would just buy this to impress your friends as it carries drinks behind you a May the Fourth party. This is the way.
