Hitchhiking robot that relied on human kindness found decapitated (2015) | Hacker News Reader

Hitchhiking robot that relied on human kindness found decapitated (2015)

wired.co.uk

51 pointspmoriarty38 comments

> "I hope that my hitchhiking trip will allow me to [...] learn more about humanity," hitchBOT explained on an FAQ

Well, he (it?) asked for it, didn't he?

Vandalism is an ugly crime, but I'm viewing this incident as someone who (now) knows what Hitchbot was and what its creators' intentions apparently were. We don't know that this was the case for whoever destroyed Hitchbot. Maybe society was substantially more innocent/optimistic about technology in 2015, but today I'm not surprised when some people become hostile at the thought of robots roaming around taking photos and uploading them to an unknown source for unknown reasons.

As to whether Hitchbot's fate was sealed because it ventured through a high crime area (article doesn't say specifically where in Philadelphia) -- I imagine such neighborhoods may also have highly suspicious attitudes towards automatons with cameras.

edit: More context:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150806_Pranksters_admit_...

tl;dr Hitchbot was found dismembered in what sounds like a touristy, bar-filled area of Philadelphia. Someone claimed to have footage of it being dismembered, but it turned out it was just a prankster who faked the footage to capitalize on the attention. So it's not even certain where or when Hitchbot "died". But Hitchbot is not really a "bot" as we (or at least I) think about them these days, e.g. the "suicidal" security bot in D.C. that stumbled its way into a fountain [0]. Hitchbot was entirely dependent on people picking it up and dropping it off. The chances of someone choosing to drive late at night to an area of high violent crime seem low in general, nevermind to drop off a robot there.

Ironically I think its chances of survival would be just as good in inner city Philadelphia as it would be near any sports bar in America (or the world), late at night.

[0] http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/07/robot-security-guard-comm...

Really? You think society has devolved in the last three years? A backlash against robots? Maybe you watched Interstellar too many times.

A more likely scenario is a bunch of teenagers saw it (it does look kind of dumb after all) and kicked the crap out of it, all the while laughing.

This isn't a reflection on our society, robots, or anything else. It was most likely a few people having fun.

What I do see as a reflection of our changing society is everyone's hypersensitivity to nearly everything. Let's all go back to our unoffensive, algo-curated safezones.

> What I do see as a reflection of our changing society is everyone's hypersensitivity to nearly everything

I agree that society, including the Internet, has become too hypersensitive. To the point where a comment in (January) 2018 feigning ignorance of how things were in 2015 is taken at face value instead of rhetorically :).

edit: I think you are right though, that it probably was pranksters/drunken idiots. Someone who dropped it off claimed to have early-morning surveillance footage of it being attacked in a touristy part of town.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150804_Can_hitchBOT_be_s...

> The video was posted by Jesse Wellens, the Philadelphian who said he found the robot while driving around early Saturday. He said he held on to the robot for a couple of hours, then dropped it off on a bench on Second Street at Elfreth's Alley between 4:30 and 5 a.m. The footage shows a man kicking hitchBOT on the bench around 5:45 a.m., according to a date tag on the video. The assailant is wearing a No. 12 Eagles jersey, the number worn by Randall Cunningham.

My 2018 mindset pictured a "bot" as something that had some kind of autonomous movement/behavior but it was for all intents and purposes a box with a camera. I think Hitchbot's survival chances were extremely low if left unattended late at night near a bar scene, Philadelphia or elsewhere.

Would you please keep snark and personal swipes out of your comments here? Your first paragraph breaks the HN guidelines. If you'd read them and take the spirit of this site to heart, we'd appreciate it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

HitchBOT was later resurrected as part of a Mad Max themed modded surrey:

https://www.hive76.org/2016/11/27/mad-hax-and-the-kensington...

I'm a member of Hive76, though I joined a while after all this happened - not sure how much of it was original and how much was replaced.

It'd be interesting to know how many human interactions or trips the robot had in each country.

Because even with a 0.1% fatal incident rate, with enough interactions you could expect a decapitation.

And that's why I don't hitchhike.

Robot aside, is this endemic of the feelings held outside the San Francisco towards robots, technology, and the rich? The robot didn't really have much to it except it wanted to go to San Francisco.

The disconnection of pollsters with the reality of the world later showed up in the american elections a few years later.

Part of me thinks that this journey might have at least been a bit longer if it had started on the west coast and moved east.

I'll go google the follow-up to this version of the robot...

This was the latest article I found (Aug 6, 2015): http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150806_Pranksters_admit_...

If Hitchbot's death was the result of late night drunkards or social media pranksters, I don't think its chances in San Francisco or Los Angeles would be any better. In fact, I think its chances would be much worse in areas filled with Internet/social-media savvy people.

edit: maybe with the exception of Times Square, where it would be not only under constant surveillance, but not even thought to be odd or interesting. Unless whoever dropped it off failed to give advance notice to the NYPD of course.

Could be the police did this? Trying to search for dangerous substance or devices. I'd wary about having an unidentified object lying on the roadside asking to be picked up... who knows what it could be? Could be drug transporter or bioweapon or IED...

I'm new to HN and the FAQ didn't say anything either, why is your name green?

It indicates that the account was just made. In the case of the GP the account was made about an hour ago.

There would likely be a police incident report, especially if there were multiple officers were involved which would almost certainly be the case for a situation in which drugs or terrorism was suspected.

more info: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150806_Pranksters_admit_...

It was found in a touristy area. If it involved cops, it would definitely be in the news.

I met Hitchbot in Salem, MA at the bon voyage party. Sad times we live in. Screw Philly.

I had a few relatives in Salem in the late 1600’s that would like to disagree with you...

It's not really surprising that it happened in the US.

why?

Because stereotypes? Seriously, Us born and raised, and I don't think my fellow citizens are on average any better or worse than anyone else around the world... just a different set of cultural and historic baggage, interpreted differently by everyone as well.

Belated RIP HitchBOT

It's a robot; what does "human kindness" have to do with this?

Because humans would have to help the robot get to its destination, San Francisco.

Wrong. it’s counter intuitive... similar to animal rights... why do animal needs any right? shouldn’t it be survival of fittest? answer is NO... and that makes us human... our ability to express emotions and “human kindness”... though it’s a choice not to show any kindness to this metal box... trashing/damaging is certainly not the right attitude...

Never forget. Never forgive.

Future versions of the robot should avoid areas with higher crime rates

Like America, apparently.

/ducks

No, just Philadelphia.

Anyone remember way back when this was an option in Bing's navigation system, to avoid high crime or high risk areas or something like that, and it invariably avoided every single low income and for lack of a better term, "ghetto" area and was accused of being racist?

I believe that was Waze, not Bing. Or at least, Waze did that and got accused of being racist, but it was also generating those areas based on user input.

If you pick it up and put it in your car, it's mostly lost control of where it's going.

I think future versions of the robot should have self-defense measures appropriate for the United States.

That would make me much less likely to give it a ride...

Maybe in Philly they are closeted robosexuals?

Article needs a (2015) tag.

Updated. Thanks!

Please find in this Deadspin artical a rebuttal to the "tragedy" of Hitchbot:

https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/hitchbot-was-a-literal-pil...

While I don't agree with all of the points made here, I do agree with some of them very strongly.

I'm unable to find a single item in this post that I could agree with or even relate to. What a terrible attitude towards a fun experiment.

I agree that it was a terrible response. I expected from Deadspin/Gawker a contrarian take about how Hitchbot was asking to be destroyed because people have become justifiably suspicious of camera-equipped robots.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com