Hitchbot, the hitchhiking robot, bums 1st ride

cbc.ca

17 pointsabaschin4 comments

I don't exactly get the point of this experiment. Granted, I haven't done too much research on it, but how is this any different from a person seeing if they could get across the country by hitchhiking?

It's part of a Canadian research project looking into the evolving relationship between people and technology.

Fourth sentence in. Hard to research the relationship between people and technology by studying interactions between people and other people.

I understand that. I guess what I meant is that people appear to still be involved in the process. In the video there seemed to be people doing most of the interacting.

I agree the video is confusing. I think that was special for its maiden voyage. It seems like it will be on its own thereafter, hence:

[…] if Hitchbot's power runs out when it is waiting for its next ride, written instructions on its body will tell people how to strap it into the car and plug it in, and direct people to a help website.

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