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Hitchhiking robot that relied on kindness of strangers found decapitated in Philadelphia

A Canadian hitchhiking robot made it just two weeks into its first American journey before being decapitated and having its arms ripped out.

The crime took place in Philadelphia.

The robot, which was roughly the size of a child, was called Hitchbot and was a project of students at Ryerson University in Toronto. The robot, which successfully crossed Canada already, had a sign that said “San Francisco or bust!,” could hold basic conversations with drivers, and could be charged up in a car’s cigarette lighter.

Hitchbot asked people to pick it up, drive it along, then drop it off for someone else to pick up and keep moving.

The robot had a list of things it wanted to accomplish in the states, including hearing jazz music in New Orleans and seeing the bright lights of Vegas, but it couldn’t accomplish any of those things because someone in Philadelphia decapitated it.

“We have no interest in pressing charges or finding the people who vandalised hitchBOT; we wish to remember the good times, and we encourage hitchBOT’s friends and fans to do the same,” the robot’s creators wrote.

(Thanks to Wired for sharing.)

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