Git along little gita

One of the downsides of not owning a car is what to do about grocery shopping. Actually, the shopping isn’t the problem. It’s the schlepping.

I’ve done a little – very little – with online services, but a lot of what I buy is fresh fruits and veggies, and I don’t trust someone else to pick out fresh fruits and veggies for me. I’m also someone who examines the sell-by date on milk, and I don’t trust someone else to rummage into the back of the dairy case and check for the milk with the furthest out expiry date.

So I make frequent trips to the grocery store.

When I’m doing a big shop, I bring my backpack and my shopping bags. When I do a really big shop, I add in my old-lady grocery cart. But mostly I do a lot of small trips, which works out because my main grocery store is across the street from the gym where I work out a few times a week.

I haven’t tried it out yet, but my grocery store also has a delivery service which I will probably explore this winter. I can go in, load my cart up, bring home the perishables and let them deliver the heavy stuff.

This will help remove my fear that one day, with an overloaded backpack, I’ll keel over backwards on my narrow front steps while fumbling with the key and tumble over backwards and break my neck. Which actually wouldn’t be that bad a way to die, as long as you die and don’t end up paralyzed. But I’m not ready to go quite yet, and I’d hate to see my frozen yogurt melting all over the steps and sidewalk. So I think I’ll experiment with the home delivery.

What I won’t be doing is spending $3,250 for a gita to haul my groceries back home for me.

Not that it’s not nice looking and all. It’s just that $3,250 is a pretty hefty price to pay for a hands-off shopping cart. A shopping cart that doesn’t climb stairs, which means there’d still be the problem of dragging the groceries up a flight. Not to mention carrying the gita up those steep steps.

Never heard of the gita? Me neither. After all, it was just announced last week and won’t be available until November. Anyway:

…the “gita” (pronounced “jee-ta” and spelled with a lowercase “g”), [is] a brightly colored, carbon-fiber robot that looks like some futuristic mixture of an exercise ball and cooler, or perhaps a commercial-size rice cooker flipped on its side and strapped to a pair of rubber bicycle wheels.

Its only purpose: to follow you wherever you go, dutifully toting your belongings like a mini pack mule on wheels (minus the animal welfare concerns). (Source: Washington Post)

Well, I’m guessing that this description – rice cooker? mini pack mule? – isn’t exactly a PR dream, but, hey, we’re talking about it, aren’t we? So mission accomplished, if not in the most flattering light.

Anyway, the gita is a local product, Boston-bred at Piaggio Fast Forward, with Italian roots. (The company is owned by Vespa.)

Piaggio believes that:

…the robot will compete with last-mile transportation solutions like e-scooters and ride-hailing companies.

Ummm. I can see ride-hailing. You really might want to use a cab or Uber to get home with a load of groceries. But competing with an e-scooter? How do you carry 40 pounds of groceries on an e-scooter?

“We’re trying to unlock the value of walkability in American towns and cities with a device that will appeal to people that are primarily driving and taking Ubers for their short errands and trips,” [Piaggio CEO Greg] Lynn said, noting that, unlike e-scooters, gita won’t crowd busy sidewalks or put pedestrians at risk of physical harm. “And we’re trying to convince people that it’s mentally and physically healthier to walk that mile instead of electric scootering or bicycle-sharing it.”

I repeat. How does something that carries a couple of shopping bags compete with an e-scooter or bicycle share? There are a ton of bicycle shares in my area, and I’m seeing a lot more people on e-scooters. But I can’t think of one instance in which I’ve seen anyone carrying anything other than a small backpack while riding on them.

So from a messaging point of view, well, duh, guess I just don’t get it.

And speaking of not getting it:

The company’s motto: “Autonomy for humans.”

I realize that self-driving is overtaking earlier meanings for autonomous. Is autonomy taking on new meaning as well? Freedom from carrying grocery bags? And isn’t “autonomy for humans” already, like, a thing? And you, like, develop it as you mature – you don’t buy it for $3,250.

Always the possibility that I’m missing something there…Not to mention that I’m missing something here:

Jeffrey Schnapp, Piaggio Fast Forward co-founder and chief visionary officer, said moving around the world with your hands object-free means a pedestrian can more fully interact with their environment, whether that means being more curious or socializing without distraction.

Hmmm. When I go grocery shopping, I want to get home and get my fro-yo into the freezer. I’m not curious about the squirrels on the Common, nor am I interested in socializing with folks looking for Cheers.

“We see gita as support for someone’s daily life and an extension of yourself, but we also see it serving as a type of connective tissue among friends,” Schnapp said.

“Extension of yourself”? “Connective tissue among friends”?

I can see this being of moderate utility as an assistive device, especially if they can figure out how to get it to climb stairs. Other than that, it’s mostly got me asking ‘what’s robotic for FFS?’

Basically, the gita looks to me like a pricey robot that can carry a couple of grocery bags.

Just exercising my opinionated autonomy here…