This Robot is Hitchhiking Across Canada

We all know it can be dangerous to pick up random strangers on the side of the road, but what about robots who need a ride? If you do any traveling in Canada, there’s a small chance you might’ve seen a random robot on the side of the road, sticking up his thumb, and trying to hitch a ride from the cars driving by. I say “random”, but this robot has been programmed with a certain task – to get from Nova Scotia to Victoria Harbor by hitchhiking.

The robot, named HitchBot, is almost equivalent to a smartphone – it’s got a GPS, speech-recognition software, and can even use software to answer questions it is asked. HitchBot can even post pictures of its travels on social media sites such as Instagram and Twitter. In fact, it already has quite the social media presence.

HitchBot was created by a group of people from Ontario who were interested in looking at how people related to technology. It left Nova Scotia on 7/26 and is supposed to finish the journey late this week. While HitchBot isn’t really much to look at, the fact that this robot has traveled thousands of miles is pretty impressive. While many probably wouldn’t risk picking up a human hitchhiker – I wonder how many would throw caution to the wind and give a ride to a friendly robot?

How do you feel about hitchhikers? Would you pick up a robot hitchhiker? Let us know your thoughts regarding this story in the comments section below!

[Image via Country933]

SOURCE: Yahoo