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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."

5 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. Mission Accomplished by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 5, Funny

    >> tape wrapped around its head that read "San Francisco or bust."

    Option 2. Mission accomplished, right?

  3. Re:Even Humans Cannot Hitchhike Safely. by codepigeon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the outcome should not be unexpected

    And there is the problem. Have we sunk so low that it should be expected that our society will not be civil? The robot made it safely across canada and parts of europe. It spent a week with a heavy metal band, people respected it.
    Two weeks in america and its defiled. Makes me emberrased.

  4. Re:interesting experiment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Too bad it was damaged beyond repair, I'm curious around the real circumstances as to how it became that way?

    Some joker tried to install systemd on it.

  5. Re:interesting experiment by n3r0.m4dski11z · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "You can't steal what is given away, and the law says that if you leave stuff lying around on purpose, that you're in a grey area. Specifically, by leaving it on the side of the road without any sort of permit, you're littering"

    And this my friends, is why it survived in canada and europe for months but NOT the usa for more than a few weeks.

    You talk so much mr poo, that you give away the real truth with your comment without even realizing it. That is why it was damaged in america in short order, because americans think exactly like this comment.

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