HitchBOT, the original robot who made fans around the world as it hitchhiked across Canada and even Europe will finally settle down in its home in Ottawa, Canada. The beloved hitchhiking robot who posted photos and videos of its adventures on social media completed a first world tour in 2014.
It has been announced that HitchBOT will finally settle down at a new home as a permanent exhibit at the Canada Science and Technology Museum but not before one more road trip!
That's right! HitchBOT will be traveling once more to interact with fans as a feature in the museum's road show. The Museum itself was reportedly forced to close down for maintenance last year when a leaky roof caused an airborne mold problem, but will be repoened in November 2017.
Some may recall the shocking and sad news of HitchBOT's U.S. hitchhiking adventure being abruptly cut short after just two weeks when it was found decapitated in Philly. But that was actually a second robot created by the team who did not want to remove the stickers and other mementos that fans placed on HitchBOT on its original journey when they needed to upgrade. The perpetrator of the attack against the second HitchBOT was never identified.
In the meantime, Tom Everrett, the curator of communications technology of the museum said that while they are excited to finally give HitchBOT a permanent home when the museum reopens next Fall, they are taking it back to the people to let it do what it does best, "interacting with Canadians," he said.
How those interactions will go is anybody's guess. Hitchbot was reportedly given a feminine yet gender-neutral voice. However, there is no actor or programmer on a microphone behind HitchBOT's responses. Instead, its creators used a crown-sourced language software to develop its artificial intelligence — so it's really anyone's guess what HitchBOT will say when people talk to it!
No details have been released about HitchBOT's new set of wandering as yet, but its creators and the museum are expected to have the dates of a tour set by Spring 2016.
