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Not All Drivers Loved HitchBOT - People Found It Decapitated in Philadelphia

So there’s this research project from Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada that was supposed to see a child-sized robot travel the country using the kindness of drivers. Charged with solar power, the hitch-hiking robot did not go long, as he was recently found completely wrecked on the streets of Philadelphia. Does that mean humans are worse than robots?
Not All Drivers Loved HitchBOT - People Found It Decapitated in Philadelphia 1 photo
Photo: Editted by Autoevolution
hitchBOT has only one sibling, dubbed kulturBOT, who travels from one art gallery to the next, tweeting photos of the artwork and the venues. At least there’s one out of two of these friendly robots who will continue its journey. But before saying goodbye to the hitch-hiking bot, let us learn a little more of the project behind it.

Simply put, I am a free-spirited robot who wants to explore the world and meet new friends along the way. I am an avid Instagrammer and tweeter. On my downtime, I can appreciate a good game of trivia and would never pass up any opportunities to break desserts.” That’s how it's described online.

Doesn’t it feel like you’d offer this guy a ride anytime? It does to us, which is why we just can’t understand why anybody would vandalize it instead. Yet, that was the case as the bot’s trip came to an end Saturday night, in Philadelphia, after having spent a little over two weeks hitchhiking and visiting sites in Boston, Salem, Gloucester, Marblehead, and New York City.

The researchers running this experiment have announced that they have no intention to press any charges and that even though they know fans will miss it, they shouldn’t give up just yet. Here’s what they said the other day:

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.
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