Image. HitchBOT ready to start his odyssey. Instagram.
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While the bot will be physically on its own, hitchBOT will be remotely supported by a team of 10 researchers—ranging from mechatronics engineers, to philosophers, to social media minders—who will be following and troubleshooting what technical issues may arise. For battery power, he'll trust the good citizens of Canada to plug him into their cigarette outlets for some juice.Having nurtured it to a state where it can essentially fly the coop, I got the sense that for Smith and Zeller it’ll kind of be like watching their teenager awkwardly stroll off into the sunset with a massive backpack hugging their shoulders.“We’ve been teaching hitchBOT everything. We came up with the identity of hitchBOT—so what kind of hobbies should hitchBOT have and the name and everything,” Zeller told me over a conference call. “And so we’ve been helping hitchBOT with everything at the moment, to tweet, to build a Facebook website. Everything we do is about hitchBOT, so of course we’re emotionally attached to it, it’s very dear to us.”For battery power, he'll trust the good citizens of Canada to plug him into their cigarette outlets for some juice.
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HitchBOT's "about me" on its official website.
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