VASCO, Starfield's first companion figure, is a robot who appears to be a loader droid of some sort. 
"No matter what tale we create, the one the players tell themselves is the one they think about and enjoy the most – and the companions," said Todd Howard, CEO of Bethesda Game Studios, in a new developer video.

Given that Bethesda is striving for "grounded exploration" in a more realistic environment, and labels their game as NASA-Punk, VASCO is undoubtedly named after the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. The creators went on to describe how companions in the new RPG have been enhanced. "Something we focused on in this game [was] how those other characters felt about you," Howard said.

This looks like a new in-engine sneak peek at a companion in Starfield. pic.twitter.com/M9vdvNKNiq

— Klobrille (@klobrille) March 16, 2022

Istvan Pely, the lead artist, said, "That's probably my favourite part, like when you're out and about and your partner makes an off-handed remark about something you're looking at or something that just happened. That seems exactly right for immersion. It's so convincing that you believe it's a genuine person." 
According to Pely, players are allowed total freedom to construct their characters. This game has been significantly levelled up. The technology is built on scanning real-world models, similar to what we do in our landscapes with photogrammetry. People have been subjected to the same treatment. Because, according to the developers, it's not only about your character's appearance and such, but we want all of your personal encounters with NPCs and other characters in the game to be as memorable as possible. And to think that the people are genuine, that a player is a real person, and that they are engaging with real people, one must believe that the people are real.