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Alas, HitchBOT is no more

E

Eeyore

It was a fun experiment; send an immobile robot with very limited capabilities (and an innocent appearance) on the road, and see how it would cope.

HitchBOT toured through Germany, visited the Netherlands in June (where he also got a cool public reception in a local theatre, and even made the national news!), and even managed to get a flight across the ocean. He also did some sightseeing of Boston, and was on its way to California. Unfortunately it (or he? :wink2: ) met some vandals yesterday, who dismembered and damaged the cute robot :thumbdown

Pity that some people had to spoil the fun ... I hope the research team in Canada does not give up though. I thought the idea was great, and the way you could follow the robot using social media totally amusing!
 
redrako

redrako

We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better, stronger, faster.
 
ouch

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
Eeyore said:
He also did some sightseeing of Boston, and was on its way to California. Unfortunately it (or he? :wink2: ) met some vandals yesterday, who dismembered and damaged the cute robot :thumbdown
Click to expand...


Beheaded in the city of my birth, the city of brotherly love..

Another embarrassment for my country. :mad3:

I'm going to wager that the words "yo" or "what you lookin' at" were uttered at least once during the crime.
 
Slash McCoy

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
Hitchbot should have been packin. Just imagine how fast and accurate a well designed shooter robot could shoot! Day, night, total darkness, whatever. No panic, instant threat evaluation and collateral damage potential asessment... a good bot would be much more highly qualified to carry a gun than even the most highly trained human. Just sayin...

Okay, okay. Well, how bout a nice taser, then?

Seriously tho, its a shame that there is always some ignoramus who just has to get his kicks by wanton destruction of stuff, and the cooler the stuff he destroys, the better. Coulda happened anywhere. I wouldnt give Hitchbot a half hour in New Orleans.
 
E

Eeyore

Well, he already survived for months, through several countries and regions, so I guess 99,99% of the people he met were good :001_smile

Seriously, I would be saddened if he had to be equipped with defence mechanisms to survive. The whole idea was that his well-being was based on trust in the people who interacted with him.
 
dpm802

dpm802

I'm surprised that I never heard of this until it was all over.

www.hitch50.com tells the story about a successful Hitch-Hiking experiment, 50 State Capitols in 50 days.
I was following this live as it happened, and came very close to giving Scotty and Fiddy a ride when they passed through my area.
 
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