HitchBot is coming to America! HitchBot, the cute little Canadian robot from Ryerson University who managed to hich-hike across Canada last year (2014) is now gearing up for his next adventure, in America! The journey will begin in Boston on July 1 7.
This comes from the official HitchBot website…
On July 17, 2015, I am shining my wellies to start my hitchhiking adventure across the USA. My journey starts at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts.
From there, I hope to complete items from my hitchhiking bucket list with the help of friendly strangers. This includes visiting a number of historic sites like Time Square in New York City; Millennium Park in Illinois; Mount Rushmore in South Dakota; and the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
My final destination is the Exploratorium in San Francisco, California. Only time will tell how long my journey will take me. I cannot wait to make new friends.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Follow HitchBot at http://www.hitchbot.me/usa/
Official PR Announcement:
TORONTO, ON, July 6, 2015 – Canada’s first hitchhiking robot, hitchBOT, begins its next hitchhiking adventure on July 17, traveling across the United States of America one
ride at a time from Boston, MA to San Francisco, CA.
In addition to newly shined wellies, the quirky robot will be packing a hitchhiking bucket list, which it hopes to complete with the help of friendly strangers it meets along the way. The list contains a number of places and historic monuments hitchBOT hopes to visit, including Times Square in New York City; Millennium Park in Illinois; Mount Rushmore in South Dakota; and the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
“hitchBOT was very well received as it made its way across Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands – proving that robots can indeed trust humans,” said hitchBOT’s co-creator
Professor Frauke Zeller, “and given that hitchBOT is built out of a bucket, we thought it would be only natural if we let it have a bucket list for this exciting new adventure.”
hitchBOT’s good-bye party will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursday July 16 during the evening party series at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, MA. Its final
destination is the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA. On Friday, July 17, hitchBOT’s co-creators, Professors Zeller and David Harris Smith, will bid it farewell on an East
Coast highway where it will begin its great U.S. hitchhiking adventure by putting up its thumb and asking for a ride.
hitchBOT is an outgoing and charismatic robot that began hitchhiking across Canada in July 2014. In less than four weeks, hitchBOT charmed its way into rides across the
country, depending on the help of kind strangers. hitchBOT cannot move by itself, but can converse with humans thanks to Cleverscript speech technology, which allows it to
answer questions about where it comes from or its favourite pastimes.
“This trip will be unlike any other, as hitchBOT’s goal is not only to hitchhike across the U.S., but also to visit a number of historic sites and monuments. We’re hoping to see
hitchBOT involved in some creative adventures while on the road,” said Harris Smith. hitchBOT’s family consists of a collaborative, interdisciplinary team of researchers from
the fields of visual arts, engineering, computer science, and communication. The project was originally co-designed by Dr. David Harris Smith, Assistant Professor in the
Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia at McMaster University (Hamilton), and Dr. Frauke Zeller, Assistant Professor in the School of Professional Communication at Ryerson University (Toronto), to see whether robots could trust humans.
Fans are encouraged to follow hitchBOT’s journey at hitchbot.me and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. hitchBOT is also inviting users to share their hitchhiking stories
and pictures using #hitchbot on Twitter and Instagram. Members of the media and the public are invited to attend the launch event on July 16 at 6 p.m.
