Hitchbot Completes Cross-Canada Trek in Three Weeks, Becomes Social Media Celebrity

Hitchbot has successfully travelled 3,700 miles over three weeks with the help of human kindness.

Conceived in Ontario from the minds of Dr. David Smith of McMaster University and Dr. Frauke Zeller of Ryerson University, Hitchbot started its trek like any human hitchhiker would—but there was no guarantee of its survival; people could have ignored or destroyed it.

“My journey’s success is reliant on those kind-hearted souls that I’ll hopefully meet along the way,” Hitchbot explained in July.

Hitchbot blogged, tweeted, and instagrammed its adventure from Halifax to Victoria.

The gender-neutral robot, built from scraps, is not an imposing figure at 3.5 feet tall and 15 pounds. The GPS-infused, voice-recognizing bot gained a strong social media following during its adventure and is now being courted for events around in the world, from the US to the Netherlands.