In 2013 two Canadian professors (David Harris Smith and Frauke Zeller) created HitchBOT, the worlds first non-murderous hitchhiking robot. It was a pretty basic robot that had no mobility, but could speak, and attempt to carry on a conversation as any good hitchhiker not looking to rob and murder you would.

HitchBOT relied solely on the kindness of strangers to get along in his travels. Here are a few pictures in happier times. His base is fashioned out of a car seat for easy mobility and sitting in vehicles.

HitchBOT also had a Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram account that it would regularly update. Powered by either solar panels, or a car cigarette lighter, he had a GPS device to track his journey, as well as a camera to periodically snap pictures to document the trip and post to social media.

HitchBOT made his first trip across Canada and developed quite a large following. A second HitchBOT was created, and hitchhiked across Germany and the Netherlands.

With all of these successful journeys under his belt, HitchBOT decided to trek across the U-S-A from Boston to San Francisco. Two weeks after this journey began, HitchBOT was found beaten, robbed, and decapitated in Philadelphia PA, the city of brotherly love. To this day, the head has not been found. Those savages.

Did you hear about HitchBOT back before his demise?  Did you meet HitchBOT?  Let us know!