When we set out to see if a robot could hitchhike across Canada, we were trying to initiate discussions about trust, notions of safety, and about our attitude towards technology. We also wanted to see, of course, whether a robot could hitchhike across the country, relying only on the goodwill and help of strangers. But the response was more profound than we could have imagined: Our robot – hitchBOT – not only met with a lot of friendly humans, but also went viral on social media, gaining more than 35,000 followers on Twitter, 12,000 on Instagram, and receiving 48,000 likes on Facebook, all in less than four weeks.