ANDROIDICIDE

City of Brotherly Love Kills Robot

Hitchhiker bot beheaded.

A four-faced robotic hitchhiker was found decapitated with its arms torn off in Philadelphia early Sunday. HitchBOT, which was conceived as a social experiment by researchers at Ryerson University in Toronto, was able to manipulate its thumb to hitch rides across Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada. The robot began its U.S. tour in Massachusetts in July, but didn’t make it to the West Coast as planned. Surveillance footage shows a man kicking the robot. “Sadly, sadly it’s come to an end,” said Frauke Zeller, one of its creators. “I hope that people won’t be too disappointed, too sad.” Members of Philadelphia's tech sector have offered to fix hitchBOT, and have started a fundraising campaign.