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Comment by clemsen | Hacker News Reader

This sounds like a (more or less well executed) PR move. As this robot has wheels and very little clearance above ground, it looks like the robot would even have difficulties climbing stairs. Thus "escapes" seems like an exaggeration.

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> it looks like the robot would even have difficulties climbing stairs

Don't underestimate Daleks.

Also, real Daleks don't try to climb the stairs, they just level the building.

Not robots.

but moving in machines with little ground clearance, that's the point here.

You've obviously never watched 'Short Circuit' ;)

Number 5 had treads and a parachute. Mobility was definitely not a problem for him.

nothing in the OP about this robot having been struck by lightning though.

Probably. Or it could simply have had malfunctioned (bugs in robots are worse) and strayed off. You can see in the video that the sidewalks are very low and there was a ramp near where the robot was. Its not hard to imagine that people stopped paying attention to it and it slipped out by mistake. Of course, saying that it "escaped" makes it seem more interesting. Imagine if a story was ran every time a machine malfunctioned. People are still very wary of robots in general. The media has done an excellent job making them seem dangerous.

They said a researcher forgot to close a gate.

Yes, which makes the title more ridiculous. The same thing will happen to a roomba if you leave it running on an open space. I can see the headline now: "Evil vacuum cleaner robot creates havoc on city streets."

The name of the robot -- Promobot. No kidding. Of course, that's probably related to a Russian root word (anyone know what?) and not naming it directly for its purpose. Still, the irony is delicious.

There is no such Russian root word, so the name is English.

The robot seems to be developed especially for street promotions: http://en.promo-bot.ru/

That site is hilarious.

on their website they claim it "will not be confused and stray" how ironic :)

http://en.promo-bot.ru/media/2016/06/robot.png

"The robot can do X, Y and Z and a new update is coming!" the cofounder said.

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