Toyota introduced on Friday its new Segway-inspired device called the "Winglet," which is aimed to assist people with their tasks and activities in malls and airports.

The stand-up-and-ride motorized prototype was not designed for a certain category, as the producer claims that anyone can easily learn how to use it and it can surely turn out to be extremely helpful in several situations.

The company does not want to rush with the commercial release and the plan is to keep testing the Winglet until the end of the year in an airport and next year move the experiments to a mall, both in Japan, in order to receive a complete set of feedback from as many users as possible.

The Winglet reaches 3.7 mph, being far slower than the Segway, which can go up to 12.5 mph but which also costs around $5,000. The distance that can be traveled before demanding a recharge is close to 3 miles. It works under a very simple principle, demanding only a gentle lean to the front in order to move forward and a similar move to the sides when turning left and right. There can also be available a protruding handle that is used as a steering wheel.

"We hope to create friendly robots that can exist side by side with people," said Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota’s executive, as quoted by the Associated Press. "Winglet will help everyone move around safely and stay active," he added.

There are many aspects that are still under development and the final version is very likely to be very different from the one presented last week, as the company explained that wireless technology might be included in the device to help shoppers and also a significant improvement for the battery could be possible in the near future.