Brain Break: Who Let the Robot Out? A humanoid robot in Russia made a break for it, but people are wondering if it's all a hoax and not just human error.
By Nina Zipkin
"Sorry boss, I was late because a robot stopped traffic." It's an excuse that's up there with "my dog ate my homework" on the plausibility scale, but some commuters in the town of Perm, Russia, may have had to trot that one out this week.
Why? Apparently, researchers on staff at Promobot, the maker of a robot that looks a little like Eve from WALL-E, were testing out the bot's ability to move around on its own, when it seems that one of the engineers left a door open, and it made a great escape into a busy intersection.
Related: Robots May Be on the Cusp of Widespread Adoption, Jibo CEO Says
The robot was out in the world for just under an hour before its battery died and was returned to the lab. Sure, it could have been simple human error (or the start of the robot apocalypse), but some are guessing that it was just a hoax to raise the company's profile a bit.
Either way, we're talking about it, so if it was some sort of ploy to go viral, well played, Promobot.
