[Merged] Hitchhiking robot thumbs its way

[Still Waters]

A talking robot assembled from household odds and ends is hitchhiking thousands of kilometers across Canada this summer as part of a social experiment to see if those of its kind can trust humans.

Society is "usually concerned with whether we can trust robots," Frauke Zeller, co-creator of the "hitchBot," told AFP.

https://uk.news.yaho...28.html#JDTEvLT

[FollowTheTrail]

''If you're driving along Canada's highways, you may encounter a hitchhiking robot with his right thumb out, Wellington boots on and a charming personality — not to mention the ability to tweet, Instagram and update his Facebook profile. Meet hitchBOT....''

http://www.livescience.com/47206-robot-hitchhikes-across-canada.html

[Eldorado]

They tried that here but the robot got done-in by a passing serial-killer.

[FollowTheTrail]

They tried that here but the robot got done-in by a passing serial-killer.

poor robot!

[Anomalocaris]

Designed by Canadian researchers, hitchBOT is part art project, part social experiment. Can robots trust humans? Or, perhaps more importantly, can drivers trust hitchBOT?

That’s just hitchBOT, a friendly hitch-hiking robot trying to make his (her? its?) way from Boston to San Francisco.

Unfortunately, he never made it out of the Northeast. The researchers who built hitchBOT announced today that they need to stop the experiment because hitchBOT was vandalized in Philadelphia.

Hitchhiking Robot Lasts Just Two Weeks in US Because Humans Are Terrible

Edited August 1, 2015 by Anomalocaris

[Ashotep]

Does this really surprise anyone.

[+and-then]

Does this really surprise anyone.

It certainly shouldn't. In America, an 8 year old child is brutally abused and killed by a "friend"... what chance does a machine have? God, I'm such a skeptic anymore...

[Rlyeh]

They tried that here but the robot got done-in by a passing serial-killer.

Should've used the T-800 model.