HitchBOT, the hitchhiking robot, may have been destroyed in Philadelphia

Hitchbot

August 4, 2015

HitchBOT, the hitchhiking robot and social experiment designed in part by McMaster’s David Harris Smith, may have met an untimely demise in Philadelphia.

The robot tweeted about its “death” on Aug. 1:

The robot, which has previously hitchhiked across Canada, Germany and Holland, was two weeks into a trip across the US.

News of HitchBOT’s demise has spread across the internet, though there have been questions about the situation, given that the last two people with the robot were YouTube stars and pranksters Jesse Wellens and Ed Bassmaster.

The pair also were the first to obtain footage of the robot being destroyed (the same footage Gizmodo says is fake).

In a statement, Smith and co-creator Frauke Zeller of Ryerson University say they have “no interest in pressing charges or finding the people who vandalized hitchBOT; we want to remember the good times, and we encourage hitchBOT’s friends and fans to do the same.”

They also say that “this great experiment is not over. For now we will focus on the question “what can be learned from this?” and explore future adventures for robots and humans.”