
HitchBOT destroyed in Philadelphia, ending U.S. tour - kelukelugames
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/hitchbot-destroyed-in-philadelphia-ending-u-s-tour-1.3177098
======
mirimir
It's too bad that HitchBOT didn't upload images of its attackers. A US version
of HitchBOT ought to have live video and more accurate GPS ;)

Edit: From coverage of the upcoming US tour:[0]

> So far, there are no signs of anything nefarious done to the robot, but
> there's also no proof. Its creators intentionally cast their gaze aside.

> "We want to be very careful to avoid surveillance technologies with this;
> that's not what we're trying to do here," Smith said.

I get that. Maybe the attackers in Philly suspected surveillance. But we have
no idea who they are, or why they did it.

[0] [http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/hitchbot-to-start-u-s-
jour...](http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/hitchbot-to-start-u-s-journey-
after-travelling-canada-europe-1.3156252)

~~~
joesmo
It wasn't even armed. What did they expect?!

~~~
jqm
Well it's not anymore. There is a very clear picture of torn off arms lying in
the gutter.

------
sithadmin
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season 11, Episode 1: "The Gang Finds A
Robot"

------
blincoln
I'm actually surprised the police didn't destroy it before someone else did.
Something that big, obviously wired up with electronics, sitting on the side
of the road with an invitation for people to put it in their car?

Call me paranoid, but that sounds a _lot_ more like a bomb than a lot of other
things police in the US have destroyed (e.g. blinking LED artwork, pinhole
cameras).

~~~
avemg
I'm sad to say it, but that was my initial thought as well. In fact, it calls
to mind the Mooninite Bomb Scare [1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare)

------
zer00eyz
Bill Burr:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNnkDjMVJqE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNnkDjMVJqE)

Yea pretty much what we all expect from philly at this point.

~~~
decisiveness
The difference being the robot wasn't telling a bunch of bad jokes which led
to its deserved destruction.

------
lgunsch
It made it all the way across Canada, and around Germany, but before it even
leaves the US east coast it's been destroyed.

~~~
brobinson
They should have also done Japan or Taiwan or some other countries where it
would have survived before attempting the USA. Oh well.

------
psherman
Reminds me of the library trek in Asimov's Bicentennial Man. Asimov had a
great perspective on the various ways humans would react to robots. His robot
series is a really enjoyable read (and once you finish those, there's a good
chance you'll want to read the Foundation series as well).

------
DonHopkins
We had similar problems trying to convince passers by to help a broken robot
in Oakland:

[http://www.donhopkins.com/home/RobotMovies/Empathy.mpg](http://www.donhopkins.com/home/RobotMovies/Empathy.mpg)

His friend was more (but not very) successful working as a waiter:

[http://www.donhopkins.com/home/RobotMovies/Servitude.mpg](http://www.donhopkins.com/home/RobotMovies/Servitude.mpg)

~~~
eric_h
> Copyright 2003 Warner Brothers Television

I'm curious about the background of those videos. What's the story?

~~~
DonHopkins
Those were "One Minute Movies" we did with NBC in 2003, but that were never
aired. Will Wright wrote those two and built the robots at the Stupid Fun
Club, and I developed the robot control software and helped run the robots
from an "undisclosed location" (the back of an FMC motorcoach).

[http://www.allentownproductions.com/project.php?p=nbc](http://www.allentownproductions.com/project.php?p=nbc)

In 2003, NBC attempted to add a new feature to prime-time television with
"One-Minute Movies." Each original movie unfolded in its first 30 seconds and
ended with a cliffhanger, and then a conclusion in the last 30 seconds. The
One-Minute Movies were to be used as interstitial programming between
commercials and possibly where a show ends a minute earlier than its scheduled
running time.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/04/business/media/04ADCO.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/04/business/media/04ADCO.html)

~~~
eric_h
Interesting. Thanks for the info!

------
qzw
This is a town that once booed Santa Claus. What would you expect?

~~~
tedunangst
It's funny to see how many people think this is peculiar to philly. This is
HN, where people think it's ok to use SQL injection attacks against a website
as long as the server responds 200 OK. If you as the operator don't want that
to happen, then you need to build a better server to prevent it. Is it such a
stretch to say if you don't want your robot vandalized, you need to build a
better robot?

~~~
SamReidHughes
People forget to mention that Santa deserved it. And they didn't just boo him,
they threw snowballs at him.

------
ForHackernews
Philadelphia is the town that boos Santa Claus and throws batteries at
baseball players.

~~~
SamReidHughes
Sigh... this is just offensive and ignorant. Philly _threw snowballs_ at Santa
Claus. We wouldn't let him off with a mere booing.

------
jimkri
From Philly and I go to college in the city. Not really shocked that it
happened with how bad the city is in certain areas. A block from Temple Uni a
girl was hit in the head by a brick from a group of kids 7-13. If they didn't
care about her, the robot did not stand a chance.

~~~
roflchoppa
those kids need a good ol beating.

------
LukeB_UK
I'd like to say that I can't believe someone would do this, but I can.

~~~
tammer
As a resident of Philly I'd say you've got to remember the permanent class war
happening here. Children die in elementary schools because there isn't enough
funding for a school nurse.

To us on HN, a hitchhiking robot is a cute and friendly distraction. To
someone with no capital or prospects a hitchhiking robot is a cruel joke, and
to destroy it is an act of resistance. This perspective is often missed by the
media and general discussion.

~~~
hnpc123
It would be interesting to hear what other types of property are ok to destroy
in the name of social justice.

~~~
copsarebastards
I don't agree with destroying hitchbot.

However, I can see a strong social justice argument for destroying the
property of people who gain profit and/or power from destroying the lives of
others. Their behaviors are profitable and there is no legal means to make
their behaviors unprofitable, so doing illegal things that cost them money,
such as destroying their property, is the only means to dis-incentivize their
behavior.

I do think destruction of property can be an ethical action, but I don't think
it's a smart thing to do for legal reasons.

~~~
hnpc123
By what process are you going to determine what constitutes "destroying the
lives of others"?

~~~
copsarebastards
Ugh, what a small-minded question. If you can't figure out a definition of
"destroying the lives of others" that works for you, that's a failure of your
own imagination. Use your brain. Just because there are a myriad of valid
answers doesn't mean it's a deep, difficult question.

------
svisser
Time to throw away that bucket list.

[http://www.hitchbot.me/usa/bucket-list/](http://www.hitchbot.me/usa/bucket-
list/)

------
nsfyn55
Ummmm from Philly friends... I'm sorry we let this happen :(

------
msds
I suppose that HitchBOT has played out half of the anti-hitchhiking narrative
- hitchhiker as victim. Time to build a second robot?

------
quaffapint
Based on the pictures of what was taken and left leads to one thing -
scrappers. Leave any valuable metal or copper wiring laying around providers a
quick $ to scrappers.

------
kup0
It made it through other countries fine and then was vandalized early into its
trip in the US.

I am not surprised.

------
misiogames
welcome to murica!

------
elektromekatron
And so the war between humans and robots began.

~~~
flihp
Current Score humans: 1 robots: 0

~~~
dmichulke
Once the singularity [0] hits, the human score will be a constant.

So please don't make this an action of all of us, I'm not entirely sure robots
are not vengeful.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity)

