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

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...

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

No, just Philadelphia.

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...

Should have probably given the robot a gun...