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Meet the hitchhiking robot, hitchBOT

HitchBOT, the hitchhiking robot
A car drives by HitchBOT, a hitchhiking robot Friday, July 17, 2015, in Marblehead, Mass. HitchBOT is beginning its' first cross-country hitchhiking trip of the U.S., in Marblehead with a final destination goal of reaching San Francisco.
Stephan Savoia | AP

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A robot's hitchhiking journey across the U.S. is off to a slow start.

The robot named hitchBOT caught its first ride in Marblehead, Mass., last week, bound for San Francisco, but it still hasn't left the state.

Instead, it has bounced around the Boston area and was briefly taken to sea. On Friday, the humanoid robot took in a Red Sox game.

The robot is immobile and relies on strangers to transport it from place to place. It's the creation of two researchers in Canada who wanted to study how people interact with robots. The robot automatically documents its travels on social media.

Previously hitchBOT took 26 days to travel across Canada. Its creators said it had a slow start there, too, but then quickly zipped across the country.