By Dan Kedmey
Video footage of a hitchhiking robot’s untimely demise at the hands of an American assailant surfaced online Monday.
Surveillance camera footage obtained by YouTube vlogger Jesse Wellens shows an unidentified Philadelphia man stomping on the robot early Saturday morning at 5:46 am. Wellens had previously posted a video of himself ferrying Hitchbot around Philadelphia.
Hitchbot was found last weekend with its arms torn free and its head missing. The amiable robot, which safely hitchhiked across Germany and Canada, lasted only two weeks in the U.S.
Canadian researchers designed Hitchbot to test the frontiers of human-robot relations.
More Must-Reads From TIME
- Putin’s Enemies Are Struggling to Unite
- Women Say They Were Pressured Into Long-Term Birth Control
- What Student Photojournalists Saw at the Campus Protests
- Scientists Are Finding Out Just How Toxic Your Stuff Is
- Boredom Makes Us Human
- John Mulaney Has What Late Night Needs
- The 100 Most Influential People of 2024
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
Contact us at letters@time.com