If a wheelchair startup doesn't sound sexy, you probably haven't heard about WHILL.

Founded in Tokyo in 2012, the company makes a sleek electric wheelchair, called the Model M, that has four-wheel drive and unmatched maneuverability over any terrain. It even made a cameo in the blockbuster film Batman v. Superman.

"There is no design or innovation in this industry," says WHILL co-founder Satoshi Sugie. "We want to make a new category for personal mobility devices, the sidewalk electric vehicle. We want to change the perception of the wheelchair."

Sugie, a former Nissan engineer​, along with Sony product engineer​ Junpei Naito and Olympus medical device engineer Muneaki Fukuoka, started work on WHILL back in 2010 as a weekend project. The group received an overwhelming response to their prototype at the Tokyo Motor Show, and decided to pursue the idea as a company.

WHILL went on to win the TechCrunch Tokyo startup competition. After moving to San Francisco in 2013, the company joined the tech accelerator 500 Startups, and since has raised $13 million in funding from investors including Innovation Network Corporation of Japan and Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy.

So far, WHILL has sold 500 of the chairs, which the FDA approved in February, for $14,000 apiece. The Model M can hit a top speed of 5.5 miles per hour and has a battery that lasts up to eight hours, or 12 miles. Its front wheels are composed of 24 smaller omnidirectional wheels, which give it a tight turning radius and allow it to drive on gravel, dirt, or snow. The chair can also be controlled by its joystick or a smartphone app.

This week at RoboUniverse, a robotics conference in New York City, WHILL showed off its newest creation: an autonomous version of its wheelchair. WHILL's partner, Carlsbad, California-based 5D Robotics, equipped the Model A, which is not FDA approved and is technically a "personal mobility device," with sensors and software that enable it to ride along a predetermined route or follow behind a person automatically.

5D's software and hardware can make any vehicle autonomous with its so-called behavior engine, CMO Phil Mann says. The behavior engine collects data from GPS, lidar, sonar, radar, and ultra-wideband radio to steer the chair clear of obstacles with 2-centimeter precision.