The City of Brotherly Love is known for lots of things: cheesesteaks, the Liberty Bell, Paddy's Pub, and residents who don't take kindly to outsiders messing around in their business.
Way back in 2015, Philadelphians' territorial nature briefly became national news when hitchBOT — a child-size hitchhiking robot that relied on the kindness of strangers and had already traversed several entire countries with their help — arrived in Philadelphia and quickly got decapitated by furious locals.
The beheading of hitchBOT became something of a joking cautionary tale in Philly lore — which is why it's so bizarre that Waymo, Google's driverless cab service, has decided to come to the same town that brutalized the little robot.
On social media, residents were bemused and peeved — which is, to be fair, the average mix of emotions experienced by Philadelphians — to learn that the autonomous cabs that just a few weeks ago were being burned in protest in Los Angeles were now coming to their fair city.
"Close enough, welcome back HitchBOT," tweeted Semafor social media editor Josh Billinson.
"Philly beat [an] innocent toy robot to death for no reason," quipped a Bluesky user. "Good luck waymo."
In another post on the Twitter expat site, a self-proclaimed Philly resident said they saw one of the Waymos in their parking lot and questioned the intelligence of bringing the driverless cabs to town.
"I don't think Philly is the best place to test this," the user aptly observed.
Over on Reddit, users were similarly snide.
"Look how bad we f*cked up Hitchbot," one user on the r/Philly subreddit said. "Waymo is gonna be stripped in port Richmond first week."
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