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Hitchhiking Robot's Cross-Country Trip Ends In Philadelphia

Posted by samzenpus on from the it's-the-wink-before-the-slight dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A hitchhiking robot that successfully traveled across Canada in 26 days last year and parts of Europe, has met its demise in Philly. Created as a "social experiment," hitchBOT started its journey in the U.S. in Marblehead, Massachusetts, on July 17 with its thumb raised up and tape wrapped around its head that read "San Francisco or bust." After about two weeks in the U.S., someone in Philadelphia damaged the robot beyond repair. "Sadly, sadly it's come to an end," said Frauke Zeller, one of its co-creators. The Independent reports: "The robot was designed to be a talking travel companion and could toss out factoids and carry limited conversation. A GPS in the robot tracked its location, and a camera randomly snapped photos about every 20 minutes to document its travels."

4 of 224 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It was bound to happen. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yeah, an article about something like this with no pictures? Come on.

    CBC News article with pictures.

  2. Re:As usual by invictusvoyd · · Score: 4, Informative

    https://twitter.com/hitchbot

  3. Last seen alive on YouTube by qzzpjs · · Score: 3, Informative

    hitchBot was probably last seen alive on the BFvsGF channel on Youtube (vlog channel for PrankVsPrank). Near the end of the video they gave him a ride to the bench where he was probably picked up by the bad guys. Too bad they didn't trust the taxi driver to take him to New York.

  4. Surveillance video by Sibko · · Score: 3, Informative

    Some surveillance video is out finally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...