It looks as if it was constructed from components scavenged from a jumble sale, but an extrovert robot has managed to charm its way across North America by hitching rides from strangers along the trans-Canada highway.
Travelling from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, hitchBOT has dipped its wellington boots in Lake Superior, crashed a mountain-top wedding and attended a Native Canadian pow-wow. In total, it has covered almost 4,000 miles, charging its batteries when necessary from the cigarette lighters of cars.
Described by its creators as “an outgoing and charismatic robot”, hitchBOT is equipped with artificial intelligence, speech recognition and speech processing, which it has used to beg for lifts.
The robot also has a sense of direction, and can ask and answer simple questions.