Most people will tell you it’s not a safe idea to hitchhike. Most people say it’s unwise to pick up hitchhikers. Try telling that to a robot.
Submitted for your approval is HitchBOT. He was born, built and raised in Canada. Now he’s going hitchhiking across the United States of America. Yesterday, July 16, 2015, they gave him a kick-off party at a Peabody, MA museum. ?Today as I’m writing this, HitchBOT will be in nearby Salem, MA waiting for his first ride. That’s right; his ultimate destination is San Francisco, CA. And HitchBOT is depending on US drivers to take him there. HitchBOT speaks English, about the size of a kindergartner, ?has a bucket for head and body, garden gloves for hands and boots for feet. HitchBOT’s creators, David Smith and Frauke Zeller, will be the first to admit it’s not a world class machine. Their intention isn’t to win robotic awards. HitchBOT is more of a social experiment. They want to see if American drivers are trusting and generous enough to give this little guy rides westward, eventually arriving at the Frisco Bay. This isn’t HitchBOT’s first hitchhiking trek. He’s thumbed through his native Canada and through Germany and Holland. How will the good ol’ USA treat HitchBOT?
But Smith and Zeller are asking even more from Americans. They’ve listed places they want HitchBOT to go: Times Square, Mount Rushmore, Grand Canyon and other US sites. They can check the listings off HitchBOT’s Facebook and/or Twitter post. That’s ambitious. It’s ambitious to expect Americans to actually pick HitchaBOT up to begin with. This isn’t Canada or Europe we’re talking about here. This isn’t the 1960s or ’70s either. This is 21st century America! This day and age, Americans are cynical of their own shadow. In an era of ‘stranger danger’ and ‘ if you see something say something’, I don’t see HitchBOT going that far. I know this is a robot we’re talking about. But you know how much pop culture has been ingrained in us about robots turning on humanity? Do you think HitchBOT will even make it out of Massachusetts, let alone make it to San Francisco?