What is it with people? We're flying halfway around the world to kill animals, and now someone murders a hitchhiking robot!?

I wrote a while back about how this robot who made it all the way across Canada was going to travel from Boston to San Francisco, and how he had to come across I-80 to get to northern California and there's I-80 in Iowa.............

I was seriously looking forward to hanging out with hitchBOT. I would have definitely hung out with hitchBOT.

If this sounds like a eulogy.....well, that's because it is.

My future friend could go through all of Canada, but he could not survive Philadelphia. Look at this travesty:

This happened a little before 6am on Saturday. Dude watched the Terminator movies too much and thought this was revenge for Skynet.

We're terrible people. There's a Craiglist ad selling a dead robot.

hitchBOT's creators have addressed the matter:

hitchBOT’s trip came to an end last night in Philadelphia after having spent a little over two weeks hitchhiking and visiting sites in Boston, Salem, Gloucester, Marblehead, and New York City. Unfortunately, hitchBOT was vandalized overnight in Philadelphia; sometimes bad things happen to good robots. We know that many of hitchBOT’s fans will be disappointed, but we want them to be assured that this great experiment is not over. For now we will focus on the question “what can be learned from this?” and explore future adventures for robots and humans.

We have no interest in pressing charges or finding the people who vandalized hitchBOT; we wish to remember the good times, and we encourage hitchBOT’s friends and fans to do the same.

HitchBOT’s family has limited media availability on August 3rd and are not available on August 4th. More info will be available here on August 5th.

Screw that noise! Press charges!

I feel like crying right now. I'm not kidding. This was a great story that had a terrible ending.

If you have any heart at all, join me in writing hitchBOT's next of kin or whatever and apologize for the American jackass mentality that leads to such senseless violence against a harmless little robot.

Here's what I wrote them:

"I'm serious when I write this. I was really looking forward to seeing the robot when he made his way through Iowa. I thought this was a cool thing, as I love to travel.

It's terrible what happened, and I'd like to apologize on behalf of Americans who are decent human beings. Some of us do exist.

All the best to you guys in the future."

Here's what they wrote back (even though it looks like a copy-and-paste reply it's still a reply):

"Hello,

Thank you for your kind words and support surrounding hitchBOT at this time. Many people, as you, are big fans of the of the project and are truly disheartened by the news.

We have not yet finalized the next stages of the project, but you can read more on our website. We will release more details August 5.

Let me know if you have any questions. I appreciate your sympathy and offer to help us at this time."

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