Humanoid robot hitchBOT traveling through Massachusetts on cross-country

The robot began its journey in Salem, Massachusetts with San Francisco, CA being its ultimate destination.

If you see hitchBOT along the side of the road or outside a coffee shop, you’re free to take him with you.

A squeaky-voiced robot from Canada is throwing down the gauntlet in a politeness challenge to the USA – can it hitchhike across the country and survive intact?

Assuming all goes well, hitchBOT will be posting its own updates – including photos and videos – on the hitchBOT website and various social media platforms.

People spend an bad lot of time these days wondering (and worrying) about autonomous automobiles, and for good reason: As the pace of technological progress picks up, it’s becoming more and more likely that we’ll soon be sharing the roads with robot-driven cars. After 19 lifts over three and a half weeks, it was on the Pacific coast in the capital of British Columbia. Made primarily of buckets, pool noodles, and plastic gloves, hitchBOT is quite a sight to behold.

BOSTON (AP) – With its thumb raised skyward and a grin on its digital face, the robotic creation of two researchers in Canada embarked on a hitchhiking journey across the USA on Friday.

A Global Positioning System in the robot can track its location, and a camera randomly snaps photos about every 20 minutes to document its travels.

Ideally, the creators hope, drivers won’t leave the bot along busy roads and will charge the battery when it runs low.

To boost its appeal, HitchBot can engage in simple conversations through Cleverscript, a software engine that can create virtual assistants based on spreadsheet data. Yes, they can. This summer, hitchBOT, the Canadian robot, will be travelling across America having complete itinerary in mind. “During my travels, I have been working on my human language skills”. That’s when we started to ask, ‘can robots trust humans?’.

July 17 marked hitchBOT’s first day of travel, departing its starting point at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

Tim Hornyak covers Japan and emerging technologies for The IDG News Service. Anyone who chooses to participate does not have to observe any specific rules; hitchBOT can be set aside or passed off to someone else at any time. hitchBOT creative team member Frauke Zeller called it “an art project in the wild”, adding that the robot’s journey is simply meant to invite participation from people.