Hitchiking robot ‘killed’ in Philadelphia

The robot’s adventure came to a premature end upon reaching Philadelphia on Saturday, when someone beheaded hitchBOT and removed all its electronics.

HitchBOT, a hitchhiking robot that became a social media celebrity because of his incredible selfies and quirky travel updates, was vandalized and decapitated by an unknown assailant in Philadelphia just two weeks after the robot kicked off its journey in the United States.

The team behind hitchBOT do not plan to release the photograph they received of the damaged machine, for fear of upsetting young enthusiasts who were keeping track of the robot’s travels. “We want to see what people do with this kind of technology when we leave it up to them”, Frauke Zeller, a co-creator told Mashable.

After its successful journey across its native Canada and Europe, hitchBOT set out on July 17 to road trip across the U.S. through the kindness of strangers.

The robot, which was designed as a talking travel companion, could not move by itself.

A bad thing has happened to a good robot.

But the Canadian-made robot’s odyssey has come to a tragic end, as it was apparently wrecked by vandals in none other than the ‘City of Brotherly Love.’. Before it was trashed, hitchBOT had visited sites in Boston, Salem, Gloucester, Marblehead and New York City. A Global Positioning System in the robot tracked its location, and a camera randomly snapped photos about every 20 minutes to document its travels.

The robot, which was roughly the size of a child, was called Hitchbot and was a project of students at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Sadly, however, HitchBOT learned the ultimate lesson about human nature after barely two weeks in the US, when his dismembered body was discovered in Philadelphia. “I hope that people won’t be too disappointed, too sad”.

Fans from across the world, however, are left heartbroken, and with more proof that us humans really need to get our act together if we are to stay together on this fragile planet. You can see more about what they said on its official website www.hitchbot.me.

“We’ve always asked, in the context of this project: ‘Can robots trust humans?”‘ Smith said.