Robot hitchhikes across Canada

[Jazzy]

A hitchhiking robot has completed its 3,728 mile coast-to-coast journey across Canada.

HitchBOT reached Canada's Pacific coast at Victoria, British Columbia, nearly three weeks after leaving Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the Atlantic coast.

The robot was made by a group of Toronto researchers as an experiment in human-robot interaction and artificial intelligence technologies.

Built from an old beer-cooler bucket, foam pool noodles, wellies, solar panels and a computer, it uses GPS technology to send its creators details and pictures of its location.

David Smith of McMaster University told the Toronto Star newspaper that it took only two minutes for HitchBOT to be picked up after being left on a roadside in Halifax on 27 July.

Since then, its journey - which included attending a wedding in British Columbia - has gathered more than 30,000 followers on Twitter and over 40,000 likes on Facebook.

"We're elated," said Mr Smith. "It's been really great fun and to me it seems like it brought people together in a really interesting way."

Source

Would you have picked it up?

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Lol, I'm too paranoid to pick up a strange item like that off the side of the road though.