Senate Transportation Chairman Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, eyed a “personal delivery robot” from Starship Techologies Inc. that was being demonstrated in the Capitol rotunda today and joked that he told its sponsors, “As soon as we figure out how to license it, regulate it and tax it then we’ll probably approve it.” They weren’t thrilled with those prospects, he said with a grin.

Joking aside, Brackett said he thinks the legislation that’s being heard in the House Transportation Committee this afternoon, to include the delivery robots in the same exception in Idaho law that allows motorized wheelchairs and Segways to travel on Idaho sidewalks, “sounds reasonable.”

“It’s futuristic,” he said.

Justin Hoffman, head of Silicon Valley operations for Starship Technologies, said the delivery robots are now making takeout food deliveries in Washington, D.C. and Redwood City, Calif., and the company is planning to expand into grocery and package deliveries. One delivery robot can hold two bags of groceries.

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