STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Think of this as a high-tech version of a message in a bottle. A college professor sent a robot hitchhiking across Canada by itself. He put hitchBOT by the side of the road with its thumb out. People picked up the robot and moved it along, from Nova Scotia in the east to a national park to a First Nations powwow - even a wedding. Now the robot is almost all the way to Vancouver, still, according to photos, with an electronic smile on its face. You're listening to MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.