Well, not “now” exactly. Tortoise-equipped devices are not steering themselves around major cities yet. But the start-up has partnered with the city of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, to test how such vehicles can ease lunchtime congestion near a local tech incubator and employment center, and it plans to roll out its devices there and in two European cities in November, according to a PR representative. In the video below, an unmanned Tortoise scooter performs unhurried, self-driving laps on a patio in Berlin. This in itself appears to be something of a feat, since the tall, two-wheeled vehicles tip over so easily; Tortoise has added a set of “robotic training wheels” for balance.

Another tele-operated scooter demo, this time from startup @TortoiseHQ



Retrofitted onto existing scooter, powered by a @Raspberry_Pi, camera and microcontroller.



They will offer the service for a fixed price per month to save on operations cost and prevent urban clutter.#MME pic.twitter.com/b4ULsvkG73 — Edward Miller (@TweetEdMiller) October 1, 2019

Should the scooter get knocked over, thanks to either human-on-robot aggression or some other road hazard, the Tortoise is no more able to right itself than its reptilian namesake, a PR representative confirms: “The system would automatically ping the operator letting them know human intervention is required. Because we’ll be optimizing for smooth routes with not a lot of foot traffic (when possible) the hope is that this isn’t as huge of an issue as it currently is with scooters.”

Read: A long-term solution for scooter sharing

The scooter’s stately pace (hence the name Tortoise) is a big part of the package. In his post, Shevelenko explains that the company works with cities to determine where scooters can safely and slowly maneuver from wherever they’ve been left to where they ought to be—think the middle of the street to a public-transit hub, via a route of empty sidewalks or alleys. Right now, Tortoise employees and contracted tele-operators in Mexico City are responsible for monitoring the pathways via a camera attached to the device.

Of the many challenges associated with the future of robotic scooters, skepticism from city officials—and acceptance by the public—might be up there with technological hurdles. With some major cities having banned electric scooters, and others where sidewalk delivery robots are verboten, it’s not clear that city councils will embrace this opportunity to welcome two-wheeled sidewalk zombies. Meanwhile, the appeal of scooter vandalism and theft would seem even more enticing when the device is laden with valuable autonomous gadgetry. (For reference, Segway’s prototype robo-scooter will cost about $1,000 more than its human-piloted offerings.) As with the autonomous garbage can that was recently the target of much internet mockery, it remains to be seen whether scooting and self-driving are two technologies that truly belong together.