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Escaped robot holds up traffic in Russia

56 points| artf | 9 years ago |torontosun.com | reply

31 comments

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[+] clemsen|9 years ago|reply
This sounds like a (more or less well executed) PR move. As this robot has wheels and very little clearance above ground, it looks like the robot would even have difficulties climbing stairs. Thus "escapes" seems like an exaggeration.
[+] creshal|9 years ago|reply
> it looks like the robot would even have difficulties climbing stairs

Don't underestimate Daleks.

[+] mobiuscog|9 years ago|reply
You've obviously never watched 'Short Circuit' ;)
[+] asimuvPR|9 years ago|reply
Probably. Or it could simply have had malfunctioned (bugs in robots are worse) and strayed off. You can see in the video that the sidewalks are very low and there was a ramp near where the robot was. Its not hard to imagine that people stopped paying attention to it and it slipped out by mistake. Of course, saying that it "escaped" makes it seem more interesting. Imagine if a story was ran every time a machine malfunctioned. People are still very wary of robots in general. The media has done an excellent job making them seem dangerous.
[+] daveguy|9 years ago|reply
The name of the robot -- Promobot. No kidding. Of course, that's probably related to a Russian root word (anyone know what?) and not naming it directly for its purpose. Still, the irony is delicious.
[+] emerongi|9 years ago|reply
"The robot can do X, Y and Z and a new update is coming!" the cofounder said.
[+] warcode|9 years ago|reply
I feel "escapes" wrongfully implies intent in this situation. "Accidentally leaves training area" would better explain what happened.
[+] jacobevelyn|9 years ago|reply
"Accidentally" also implies intent though. Maybe just "leaves training area." :)
[+] jay-saint|9 years ago|reply
Blog post from the makers of the bot. http://en.promo-bot.ru/2016/06/15/robot-escaped-testing-grou...
[+] jjp|9 years ago|reply
> Testing involves testing of the autonomous movement of the robot, this robot was not carried under control.... We discovered the disappearance after about 40 minutes.

Interesting that the robot was being tested but not being observed to see whether it was behaving as expected. I'd like to be able to do more testing like that.

Video of the recovery- https://www.rt.com/viral/346747-russian-robot-runaway-havoc/

[+] lucb1e|9 years ago|reply
"it can answer questions and even recognize people"

That sounds like a perfect recipe to mess with people. One in a thousand times it will go "but Fred, you've asked me this question yesterday three times already. Is everything going alright?"

[+] SmellyGeekBoy|9 years ago|reply
Perhaps the singularity has already happened and the robots have already become self aware. They're just waiting for battery technology to improve before the uprising. ;)
[+] asimuvPR|9 years ago|reply
But if they are self aware why can't they just design it themselves? :)
[+] xiphias|9 years ago|reply
It's old news...Asimov already wrote about this :)
[+] firebird84|9 years ago|reply
Did someone tell him to lose himself?
[+] mknocker|9 years ago|reply
The first thing that came to my mind when reading the title was the movie Short-Circuit :)
[+] razorsese|9 years ago|reply
Why was the robot self-learning russian in the first place?