Of all Star Wars’ robots, it was R2-D2 that everyone wanted to hang out with, rather than that gold-plated fussbot C-3PO. None of us had any idea what the hell R2 was saying, but he was always down to cause mayhem. He was confident and content to follow around the heroes like a loyal dog, if that dog also had robotic arms.
Piaggio’s G1T4-M1N1 is the closest we can yet get. Newly launched ahead of May 4, otherwise known as Star Wars Day, you can pick one up for yourself. Or just gawk at it and admire it from a distance, far, far away.
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beep boop? beep!
It was always baffling to me how Luke Skywalker could understand R2-D2’s incomprehensible booping and beeping. Was it Morse code? Or was it more like the way in which you understand a dog’s whimpers and barks, all mood and context?
They can design spaceships as common as cars in the Star Wars universe, but they couldn’t just make him speak real words? Even a Furby can do that. Well, for authenticity’s sake, Piaggio partnered with Star Wars’ Lucasfilm (owned by Disney since 2012) to bring those similar, instantly recognizable sounds to G1T4-M1N1.
“The team behind the G1T4-M1N1 conducted extensive research, carefully studying Astromech droids like R2-D2 to really understand the look and feel of the Star Wars droids we know and love,” reads an article on Disney-owned StarWars.com.
“The G1T4-M1N1, like all Piaggio Fast Forward mobile robots, is equipped with an array of cameras and sensors that allow the droid to identify and follow its user while traversing surroundings easily.”
Why name it G1T4-M1N1? Swap out the numbers for the letters that look most like 1s and 4s. It’ll spell GITA-MINI. Piaggio just Star Wars-ified the name of their standard robot. Clever.

G1T4-M1N1 can move at up to 6 MPH and run for a maximum of seven hours before needing a recharge. It weighs 28 pounds, which is less than I’d have assumed. Like an obstinate yappy dog that’ll generally move itself about until it develops a stubborn streak, it’s not so heavy that you can’t pick it up if it gets stuck or won’t move for whatever reason.
There’s a cargo bin that holds about 16.4 liters and will lug up to 20 pounds of whatever you want to store in it. You fiddle with the robot’s settings through a connected app, and you can connect to G1T4-M1N1’s onboard Bluetooth speaker, too.
Want one of your own? Well, it’s $2,875. That’s in US dollars, and not in space credits.
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