This is why we can’t have nice things: A child-sized hitchhiking robot that was quickly becoming a social media sensation as it made its way across America had its journey come to an abrupt end over the weekend – before it was even able to leave the Eastern time zone!
HitchBOT, which was created by Dr. David Smith of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and Dr. Frauke Zeller of Ryerson University in Toronto, previously spend 26 days hitchhiking in Canada last year, and has also traveled throughout parts of Europe, was attempting to complete a journey from the East Coast of the US to the West Coast.
Sporting the phrase “San Francisco or bust” on its head, the smiling hitchBOT departed from the town of Marblehead, Massachusetts on July 17, and according to the Associated Press, it made it to a Boston Red Sox game and was also able to visit New York City. However, the robot wound up being vandalized in Philadelphia and was too badly damaged to continue its trek.
No plans to release final photo, press charges
The creators said that they were sent an image of the robot, which is immobile and relied upon people to pick it up and drop it off, on Saturday, but were unable to track its location because its batteries were dead. They do not know who damaged the robot or why, the AP said, but have no plans to pursue the culprits or press charges.
HitchBOT was developed to be a talking travel companion, and could communicate facts and engage in limited conversations with the drivers who stopped by to offer it a lift, reporters said. It has a GPS to track its location, and a camera that snapped a random picture every 20 minutes or so as a way to document its travels.
During its previous journeys, the AP said, the robot made its way to a wedding, stopped off at a comic book convention, had its portrait painted in the Netherlands and even spent an entire week rockin’ out with a heavy metal band. The creators said that they will not release the last image of the damaged hitchBOT, in order to protect younger fans.
“Sometimes bad things happen to good robots,” they said on the project’s website. “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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Feature Image Credit: HitchBOT
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