Hitchbot Research Paper

After hitchhiking across multiple countries, HitchBots’ hike was ended in downtown Philadelphia.“Created through a collaboration between McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and Ryerson University in Toronto, its inventors said they planned to have the robot hitchhike from East Coast to West Coast as part of a social experiment,”(The Recorder 1). They created a robot that would rely on the kindness of strangers to take it to it’s next destination. “It was designed to be unfailingly polite in its requests for help and could carry on a limited conversation,”(Carter 2).And could also share a number of factoids along the way. He had a GPS inside the body to allow his creators to keep track on him. But before HitchBot made his way onto the United States he had already traveled across Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany. Some strangers

recall taking Hitchbot to a comic book convention and even a wedding.
The creators then decided to experiment with HitchBot in America.

The hike began in Massachusetts. After a time in Marblehead he was carried to Boston . HitchBots’ Twitter feed consisted of Pictures at the public garden and the Duck Tour. He later on went to Fenway park where fans dressed him in a Red Sox Jersey. When HitchBot eventually arrived to New York he was also photographed in Times Square. But as he continued traveling he ended up in Philadelphia where he was torn to shreds and left in the street. The creators found out because an image was sent to them of vandalized HitchBot.
But before this act of vandalism, strangers had been nothing but respectful and affectionate to HitchBot. Over the years researchers have tried to see how robots were accepted in different roles. In fact, when asked , 48 percent of people in Europe said that they would work with a robot. American Brutality has been a big social problem in the United States and is still increasing . But what has happened now is that humans are harming things now for no reason. There could be a vast number of \
reasons that could have caused the vandalism to occur

.
The person or persons who attacked this unthreatening robot are probably grown up in a violent environment. Some people grew up in a family where there is no love, kindness, or respect for each other. Some parents are very cruel and abusive both mentally and physically. And these children follow the pattern of what they have seen and become very negative and abusive adults who do not care about their families or anybody else and much less for a robot.
Another reason could be that this person was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. When a person is in this state of mind their thinking is not correct. A lot of people do very unacceptable things when they are drunk and they don't realise what they have done until they are sober and it’s too late.
The route of HitchBot was unsafe and dangerous . He needed to travel from Massachusetts to San Francisco, California . “There are vandals in every neighborhood of every country,”(Murrant 1). Sadly it happened in the city that is suppose to be of brotherly love. It is somewhat the router's fault for giving a dangerous route where the robot would most likely be destroyed.
“Its overall design with a plastic bucket for a body, pool noodle arms and legs, and matching rubber gloves and boots was meant to be quirky and fun,”(The Recorder 1). This could also be a reason because people see this robot and think that it's not worth anything or it looks stupid.The robot didn’t do anything really but just sit there. So it kind of doesn't make sense for it to be here and that’s what could have gone through the guy or guys’ heads’. But whatever the reason could of been . It's unacceptable for a grown man to do this to something completely harmless. Media has been very at describing things and making them known.
Media can really spread news around the world very quickly. In the case of HitchBot, there is no exception. People were taking pictures and posting the encounters with him on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
“The creators were sent an image of the vandalized robot Saturday August 1 but could not track its location because its battery was dead,”(Fieldstadt 3). The creators knew that the robot was destroyed within one day because of the media has aired the news out the world. On August 2, Lauren O’neil posted a photo which shows that HitchBots’ head was missing and his arms were ripped off.very sad to see.
Anyone can now express their opinions and feelings on the situation . There are many articles that are over different people's opinions whether on HitchBot deserved it or not and so on. And now that it has happened in the United States , it puts a lot of attention on us and makes us look bad and unfriendly.
And because it happened in Philadelphia, it changed peoples views on the city in a negative way . And not only the city but the entire country . Even though downtown Philadelphia may have been dangerous already, it caught the spotlight and everyone's focusing on that one city when HitchBot is brought up.
But I think that what people see in movies and video games and all these other things affect that person's mind and change their views on it. The media has been both positive and negative about spreading news . Now the effects of media vary because everyone thinks differently and everyone has a different perspective.
The owners and the people that follow him are very sad,they are trying to understand what and why this happened and who did it. It has brought out the stereotype for some people that the United States is a bad place with violent people.