Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
The robot was no match for Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
The child-sized figure with robot-like qualities was the brainchild of Canadian researchers in the mid-2010s.<\/p>\n
The goal was to try and better understand human-robot relationships, and to generally gauge how humans would interact with robots.<\/p>\n
He was carried across the Northeast by the kindness of strangers who were kept up to date through social media posts.<\/p>\n
Nicknamed hitchBOT, the oddity developed quite a following, moving through Netherlands, Germany, and Canada.<\/p>\n
When he hit the United States, he crossed through the northeastern part of the country over a two-week span.<\/p>\n
And he was making \u2014 and having \u2014 a good time. He took in a Boston Red Sox game, visited an aquarium, and was gleefully photographed in Times Square in New York.<\/p>\n
And then he arrived in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
hitchBOT\u2019s creators said their baby had been mugged while taking a break at Elfreth\u2019s Alley on Aug. 1, 2015<\/a>, and stripped for parts.<\/p>\n They said he had been horrifically decapitated.<\/p>\n The creators later quipped<\/a>, \u201csometimes bad things happen to good robots.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2015, Laura Blankenship, cochair of the Computer Science Teachers Association, wrote a post<\/a> about the lessons from the experiment. She remarked that the creators got an answer to their existential question:<\/p>\n \u201cHumans might treat robots just like humans,\u201d Blankenship wrote.<\/p>\n hitchBOT became fodder for late-night talk shows, gossip websites, and ammunition for the usual folks who enjoy taking cheap shots at Philadelphia and its inhabitants.<\/p>\n The New York papers ate it up, as did CNN.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is why we can\u2019t have nice hitchhiking robots,\u201d CNN wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n As far as Philadelphia\u2019s role in the episode, the city still holds a special place in its heart for the headless kind-hunter. On the 10th anniversary, a memorial service and a remembrance were held at the famous alley where hitchBOT met his end<\/a>.<\/p>\n