Hitchhiking robot travelling across Canada

[Hupriest]

Looks like the project is going to be a success:

After a stop to recharge, Canada‘s most famous, only beer cooler-turned-hitchhiking robot will set off on one of the final legs of its cross-country journey.

HitchBOT, the brainchild of a group of Ontario researchers, will have managed to thumb its way from Halifax to Victoria in about three weeks.

Last check on Wednesday, the chatty, social media-savvy robot was in Kelowna, B.C., on its way to the Open Space art centre on Vancouver Island before heading to the Salish First Nations community.

Came across this story today and I thought it was a pretty cool idea since I've always wanted to travel across Canada myself (gone from Ontario to the Atlantic so far).

A hitchhiking robot is set to start off on a whirlwind adventure, attempting to hitchhike from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, and relying on the kindness of strangers to get to its final destination.

Hitchbot is more of a collaborative art project and social experiment than a marvel of modern technology.

The little traveller is about the size of a six-year-old child that was made using pool noodles, an old bucket, Wellington boots, rubber gloves, solar panels and a computerized "brain."

David Harris Smith is an assistant professor at Hamilton's McMaster University who first came up with the idea of creating a collaborative art project centred around a hitchhiking robot.

"Hitchbot is travelling across the country, and it’s collecting stories as it goes, too. So it will ask if they have a story that they’d like to tell about travelling or hitchhiking," he said.

"We would love for Hitchbot to have some adventures. Of course, I’ve hitchhiked across the country several times and for young people it used to be almost a rite of passage."

It give some folks some perspective of how long this journey will be (from wikipedia):

Covering 9,984,670 km2 or 3,855,100 sq mi (land: 9,093,507 km2 or 3,511,023 sq mi; freshwater: 891,163 km2 or 344,080 sq mi), Canada is slightly less than three-fifths as large as Russia and slightly larger than Europe. In total area, Canada is slightly larger than both the U.S. and China; however, Canada ranks fourth in land area (i.e., total area minus the area of lakes and rivers)

Link to the article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...nada-1.2716476

So what do you guys think? Are you going to help this little fella make his journey if you were to come across him?

- - - Updated - - -

A picture for those who wonder what he looks like:

[Deleted]

Won't someone steal it?

[Tradewind]

Only if it follows the rules of the road.

[Gheld]

^Without a doubt.

[Hupriest]

Well it connects directly to the internet and posts updates as it goes on it travels so I would hope that would deter peeps from stealing it:

Hitchbot is also equipped with a GPS and 3G wireless connectivity that will allow it to post frequent updates of its position on the internet.

Smith admits privacy could be a concern, so they've built privacy settings into Hitchbot. It will ask permission before taking a picture, or ask those in the car to take a selfie with it. There will also be flesh and blood moderators sifting through the data collected.

But why would anyone want to steal a hitch-hiking robot that tries to engage in random conversions/take selfies?

[Masark]

Won't someone steal it?

We're talking about Canada here. =)

[Tradewind]

We're talking about Canada here. =)

It is going through Quebec though...

[Saladbar]

If this was in the US, people would try to mailbox it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mailbox_baseball

[Puupi]

We're talking about Canada here. =)

Some lonely lumberjacqueline is going to marry him.

[Reeve]

It doesn't have a towel. Definitely doing it wrong.

[CesarCutsh]

Looks like the project is going to be a



Came across this story today and I thought it was a pretty cool idea since I've always wanted to travel across Canada myself (gone from Ontario to the Atlantic so far).



It give some folks some perspective of how long this journey will be (from wikipedia):

Link to the article: A hitchhiking robot is set to start off on a whirlwind adventure, attempting to hitchhike from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, and relying on the kindness of strangers to get to its final destination.

Hitchbot is more of a collaborative art project and social experiment than a marvel of modern technology.

The little traveller is about the size of a six-year-old child that was made using pool noodles, an old bucket, Wellington boots, rubber gloves, solar panels and a computerized "brain."

David Harris Smith is an assistant professor at Hamilton's McMaster University who first came up with the idea of creating a collaborative art project centred around a hitchhiking robot.

"Hitchbot is travelling across the country, and it’s collecting stories as it goes, too. So it will ask if they have a story that they’d like to tell about travelling or hitchhiking," he said.

"We would love for Hitchbot to have some adventures. Of course, I’ve hitchhiked across the country several times and for young people it used to be almost a rite of passage."

So what do you guys think? Are you going to help this little fella make his journey if you were to come across him?

- - - Updated - - -

A picture for those who wonder what he looks like:

Well it seems like very exciting robot project..I will try to gather some more details along with latest updates and share it out soon..

[Deleted]

defo will be raped and murdered by a trucker.

[Masark]

defo will be raped and murdered by a trucker.

Actually, the journey was completed successfully some time ago.

[XDurionX]

HitchBot is dead. Was killed in Philadelphia. Saladbar was right. SHAME ON YOU PHILLY.

[Independent voter]

HitchBot is dead. Was killed in Philadelphia. Saladbar was right. SHAME ON YOU PHILLY.

Hitching in Canada is a cakewalk.

[Notchris]

HitchBot is dead. Was killed in Philadelphia. Saladbar was right. SHAME ON YOU PHILLY.

It went to Philly?

That was it's first and last mistake.

[Super Friendly Kitty Cat]

HitchBot is dead. Was killed in Philadelphia. Saladbar was right. SHAME ON YOU PHILLY.

I just can't imagine who would be responsible for that in Philadelphia. It really boggles the mind. I have no idea at all, whatsoever. Really a mystery, the people or group of people that would have committed this act.

#robotlivesmatter

[drwelfare]

Figured it would get stolen or tore up for scrap at some point.

[Stop Pretending]

Heh, no suprise it was Philly. Hell they fucking hate Santa Clause.

[Deleted]

"That thing come by my house i kill it!"

Well apparently he made it through Canada and some parts of Europe. Died almost immediatly in the US in Philadelphia. Would've been interesting to see where it would otherwise have been destroyed, maybe shot in Chicago, or stabbed in Detroit?