Hitchhiking robot thumbs its way across Canada
A talking robot assembled from household odds and ends is hitchhiking thousands of kilometers across Canada this summer as part of a social experiment to see if those of its kind can trust humans.
Society is “usually concerned with whether we can trust robots,” Frauke Zeller, co-creator of the “hitchBot,” said. Hollywood movies like “The Terminator” often depict machines as enemies of mankind, according to the assistant professor at Toronto’s Ryerson University. But, she noted, quite the opposite is true of hitchBot. “This project turns our fear of technology on its head and asks, ‘Can robots trust humans?’” Zeller said.
“Our aim is to further discussion in society about our relationship with technology and robots, and notions of safety and trust.”
Zeller and fellow professor David Smith of McMaster University, along with a team, designed hitchBot to be fully dependent on people. “It cannot achieve its task of hitchhiking without the help of people, because it cannot move by itself,” she said.
And hitchBot certainly has what it takes to charm its way into people’s hearts. It can strike up a conversation and can answer trivia questions by consulting information using its builtin computers. HitchBot has what has been described by media as a “yard-sale aesthetic,” built for about $1,000 from parts found in a typical home or hardware store.