Disassembly Required -- Real Life

HitchBot, a friendly-looking talking robot with a bucket for a body and pool-noodle limbs, first arrived on American soil back in 2015. This "hitchhiking" robot was an experiment by a pair of Canadian researchers who wanted to investigate people's trust in, and attitude towards, technology. The researchers wanted to see "whether a robot could hitchhike across the country, relying only on the goodwill and help of strangers." With rudimentary computer vision and a limited vocabulary but no independent means of locomotion, HitchBot was fully dependent on the participation of willing passers-by to get from place to place. Fresh off its successful journey across Canada, where it also picked up a fervent social media following, HitchBot was dropped off in Massachusetts and struck out towards California. But HitchBot never made it to the Golden State.