Hitchhiking Robot Lasts Just Two Weeks in US Because Humans Are Terrible
When hitchBOT the hitchhiking robot started his journey in Boston two weeks ago he wanted to see the entire country. Unfortunately, he never made it out of the Northeast. The researchers who built hitchBOT announced today that they need to stop the experiment because hitchBOT was vandalized in Philadelphia.
From the researchers who built hitchBOT:
hitchBOT’s trip came to an end last night in Philadelphia after having spent a little over two weeks hitchhiking and visiting sites in Boston, Salem, Gloucester, Marblehead, and New York City. Unfortunately, hitchBOT was vandalized overnight in Philadelphia; sometimes bad things happen to good robots. We know that many of hitchBOT’s fans will be disappointed, but we want them to be assured that this great experiment is not over. For now we will focus on the question “what can be learned from this?” and explore future adventures for robots and humans.
The goal of the hitchhiking trip was to see how humans would interact with hitchBOT. And apparently the answer was “not well.” HitchBOT has been around the world, including trips across the entirety of Canada and Germany without major incident. But America is clearly a hard land for our robot brothers and sisters.
Update, August 2nd: Canadian journalist Lauren O’Neil has posted this photo of hitchBOT, which appears to show how he was found in Philly. His head is missing and his arms were ripped off.
Hitchhiking Robot Lasts Just Two Weeks in US Because Humans Are Terrible
Sadly, hitchBOT never made it very far, as you can see from the map of his American travels below:
Hitchhiking Robot Lasts Just Two Weeks in US Because Humans Are Terrible
No word on whether his trademark “wellies” were stolen, but based on the photo below, it looks like the damage was mostly to hitchBOT’s head, which appears to be missing.