- Bebop the robot tried to take a flight to the southwest
- He had a seat and a ticket, but ran afoul of the airline’s baggage rules.
- The plane finally took off, but arrived an hour later than expected.
Tired of menacing jobs, art, and marathon records, robots have turned their attention to the most typically human pastime of all: being a hellish nuisance on public transportation.
The culprit is Bebop; the 70-pound humanoid robot was hoping to catch a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to San Diego, but despite having its own seat and ticket, just like a human passenger, its presence ended up causing an hour-long delay.
The first problem was the Bebop’s aisle seat. Even though he had a ticket, the Bebop was essentially his traveling companion’s carry-on bag, and having the Bebop so close to the aisle went against Southwest’s policy on large carry-on bags.
Article continues below
Things snowballed from here. The flight attendants had a lot of questions for Bebop after his first policy violation, questions they needed answered before the plane could safely take off. That’s what caused the delay, along with the fact that Bebop was moved to a window seat and had its large lithium-ion battery removed to comply with weight limits and battery regulations — which is similar to why Bebop was flying in the cabin and not the cargo hold of the plane.
An unexpected travel delay
Bebop is operated by Elite Event Robotics and was traveling with employee Eily Ben-Abraham, who told People, “Our robots are designed to create engaging and memorable experiences at events,” adding, “moments like this highlight both the newness of the technology and the evolving logistics that come with bringing these experiences to a national scale.”
I imagine Bebop certainly created a memorable experience for his fellow travelers, although if I were among them it’s not one I’d want to repeat.
Upon seeing the news, some have, perhaps understandably, responded negatively to the press generated by Bebop, saying things like, “It’s a viral marketing stunt” and “F**k that passenger for not calling and notifying him first and just forcing Southwest to deal with it on the spot.”
However, while generating buzz around a flying robot was likely an intended side effect of Bebop’s adventure (he was seen taking selfies with people before boarding), causing a delay doesn’t appear to have been part of the plan, as Ben-Abraham said he had no problem escorting the robot through an airplane cabin from Texas to California.
Following Bebop’s mishap, I expect other bots to attempt the same journey and repeat his viral fame, although I hope that won’t be the case. Plane tickets are expensive and cramped enough without robot passengers filling the seats.
They should stick to other modes of transportation and let major transportation delays be left to red-blooded human beings who want to ruin people’s travel experience the old-fashioned way – with a mix of entitlement and love of the game.
Follow TechRadar on Google News And add us as your favorite source to get our news, reviews and expert opinions in your feeds.
