Spot Robot Rickshaw Takes Adam Savage Places

For uber nerd Adam Savage, it’s just another day. You know, a robot rickshaw is his preferred mode of transportation, and he gets it to take him around. Maybe not exactly from two points across town, but certainly more than good enough.

This robot rickshaw is actually the product of Adam Savage’s collaboration with Boston Dynamics, another icon in the tech sector. Using the company’s Spot robot, Adam Savage got himself a custom ride – with a touch of the orient and the Victorian era (yeah, go figure that combo out).

Boston Dynamic’s Spot robot is “a nimble robot that climbs stairs and traverses rough terrain with unprecedented ease, yet is small enough to use indoors. Built to be a rugged and customizable platform, Spot autonomously accomplishes your industrial sensing and remote operation needs.”

With four legs, a speed of 1.6 m/s, 90 minutes runtime on a single (swappable) battery charge, and 360-degree vision (thanks to stereo cameras), the Spot robot is something anyone would want. Using it as part of a robot rickshaw, more so!

However, it is not really available to just anyone. The Spot robot is primarily meant for industrial purposes, and while we can say with 99.99% certainty that being part of a robot rickshaw is not an industrial application, Adam Savage and his Tested team are not exactly just anyone. You catch our drift.

And thanks to their video, we can vicariously experience the efficiency (and some blunders) of the Spot robot and its not-so-common, not-so-modern application.

In case you’re wondering, Spot will set you back tens of thousands of dollars…perhaps a tad too rich for our blood (for a rickshaw). But cool to watch for free!

You might also want to read this: Adam Savage’s 1000-Shot NERF Blaster Is Savage.