We’re still waiting on flying cars. Meanwhile, a startup called Chip Motors wants you to stay on the couch while their boxy robot handles the grocery run. It sounds like sci-fi. Or at least a very aggressive form of convenience.
Chip has opened pre-orders for a low-speed EV that promises to park itself. Pick up curbside orders. Maybe even wash its own face. It’s part golf cart, part personal assistant, and entirely questionable if you’re a fan of traditional driving dynamics. But that’s the pitch. A life made lighter. Or maybe just lazier.
The “Smile” of Convenience
The vehicle isn’t trying to be fast. Top speed sits at a brisk 25 mph. That puts it firmly in Low-Speed Vehicle territory. Legal for most streets under 35 mph zones. Perfect for dense cities, bad for highway merges.
It packs a 15-kWh battery. Chip claims 100 miles of range. Plug it into any standard wall outlet overnight. Full charge by morning. Got a Level 2 charger? It drops to four hours. Efficient enough.
Jameson Detweiler, co-founder of Chip Motors, saw this need during the pandemic. Miami changed. People swapped sedans for golf carts to run local errands. Standard golf carts though, lack durability. They aren’t built for daily road abuse. They definitely can’t drive themselves to Trader Joe’s.
Enter the Chip.
It looks like it’s grinning at you. Literally. No traditional grille here. Just a screen of pixels on the front. It blinks. It winks. It sticks its tongue out at you while it idles. Is this what we’ve come to? Expecting our machines to be playful? Probably.
Specs and Strange Decals
You have two options. A four-seater for $15,000 or a six-seater for $18,000 Both come naked—no roof, no doors. Add them later if you want. The six-seater mimics the footprint of a Mini Cooper. The four-seater stays true to golf cart dimensions.
Customization runs deep. Nine colors. Strange decals. There is an alien abduction option. Another features an earthworm on a fishing hook You can add a TV system hidden under the hood. Surf racks. Off-road tires. It tries very hard to be fun.
There’s also “Chip Go.” The self-driving service. A real human operates the vehicle remotely when it’s empty. It picks up your delivery. It parks itself. The price for this digital nanny? Undisclosed. That’s a hole in the plan right now.
The goal isn’t to replace your sports car. It’s to handle the mundane loops. The errands you hate.
Pre-orders are open. A fully refundable $25 deposit holds your spot. Deliveries don’t start until 2027. That is a long time to wait for a winking robot cart.
We’ll see if it actually drives itself. Or if it just stares at us while we wait. The pricing for the service model is missing. The full cost remains a question mark. Maybe that’s intentional.
