The enormous Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge expansion at the original Disneyland in Anaheim, California is still about a year and a half away, but that’s doesn’t mean we’re not steadily seeing incremental progress in the park’s efforts to make the fully-immersive Star Wars experience a reality.
This week Disneyland began testing a new “Star Wars” droid named J4-K3 (or simply “Jake”) around the exterior walkways in Tomorrowland. Previously the droid had appeared briefly inside the Star Wars Launch Bay building, but sightings were rare until now.
WATCH J4-K3 IN TOMORROWLAND:
Jake rolls freely around Tomorrowland, interacting with guests, beeping and making a revving-engine “vroom” sound whenever someone gets in his way, stopping intermittently to pose for photographs, and even letting children hug him.
J4-K3’s behavior is similar to what I saw with Savioke’s Relay service robot at the Disney Accelerator demo day event earlier this week, and considering their already-announced collaboration with Walt Disney Imagineering, I would not be at all surprised to hear that the tech company contributed to this droid’s development.
WATCH SAVIOKE RELAY ROBOT PRESENTATION:
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is expected to open within the first half of 2019 at Disneyland Resort.
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