Ride the Lightning

Hitchhiking Robot Killed in Philadelphia

August 6, 2015

So much for the city of brotherly love. Last year, I was mesmerized by hitchBOT the hitchhiking robot who traveled across Canada successfully with the help of humans. He recently began a mission to cross the U.S. with the help of strangers but met with a vicious attack in Philadelphia according to a story from Naked Security.

The three-foot-tall robot, with a beer-bucket body and a smiling LED face made it from Boston to Philadelphia, where he met his end on August 2nd in the early morning.

hitchBOT is the project of a pair of communications professors, Dr. David Harris Smith and Dr. Frauke Zeller, who wanted to study how humans interact with robots in an uncontrolled environment. hitchBot can't move alone, but he has an outstretched rubber thumb and instructions written on his body asking for rides from helpful humans. Not only did he make it across Canada, but earlier this year, he traveled through Germany and the Netherlands.

hitchBOT was equipped with Cleverscript speech technology so he can converse. He shared his adventures via a video camera and social media API.

There is a depressing video of "the murder" included with the story which I refused to watch. Update: Thanks to Carl Roberts for letting me know that the video proved to be a fabrication though the essence of this post is accurate.

Social media accounts announced on Sunday that the project has reached an end "for now." There was an outpouring of support from people who offered to repair hitchBOT or build a new one. And fans organized a trip to collect hitchBOT's broken body and send it back to its creators. Chalk one up for the good guys.

I was touched by hitchBOT's tweet this weekend: "My trip must come to an end for now, but my love for humans will never fade. Thanks friends."

I hope humankind gets another chance at redemption – and takes it.

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