News just in, Toyota has a new mode of personal transport and it looks familiar. The Toyota Winglet bears an uncanny resemblance to the Segway, but it is different enough to be considered unique. The Winglet comes in three models: S, M and L, but don’t be fooled, the S model is apparently the sporty model which allows for hands free operation (which you can see in the video after the jump). The L, as you can see in the picture, just looks like Segway’s less robust little brother.

Toyota are terming the Winglet, “a personal transport assistance robot,” which seems a little overblown considering that there seems little robotic about it at all. Testing is to begin this year at Nagoya Airport and Laguna Gamagori (a seaside resort in Aichi prefecture that I have never heard of). If you want to get a hands on, then you are going to have to wait until 2009 and go to Tressa Yokohama shopping complex in Yokohama City, which is where they will begin the public phase of the testing.

[Far East Gizmos]

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