- Bebop the robot tried to get on a Southwest flight
- He had a seat and a ticket, but ran afoul of the airline’s baggage rules
- The plane eventually took off, but arrived an hour later than planned
Bored with menacing jobs, art and marathon records, robots have turned their attention to the most quintessentially human pastime of all: being a hellish nuisance on public transport.
The culprit is Bebop; the 70-pound humanoid bot was hoping to board a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to San Diego, but despite having his own seat and ticket just like a human passenger, his presence ended up causing an hour-long delay.
The first track was Bebop’s aisle seat. While he had a ticket, Bebop was essentially his travel companion’s carry-on, and Bebop being so close to the aisle was against Southwest’s large carry-on policy.
The article continues below
Things snowballed from here. The flight crew had plenty of questions for Bebop after his first violation of policy, questions they needed answered before the plane could take off safely. That’s what caused the delay, as well as seeing Bebop moved to a window seat and having its large lithium-ion battery removed to comply with weight limits and battery regulations – similar to the reasons why Bebop flew in the cabin and not in the hold of the plane.
An unexpected travel delay
Bebop is operated by Elite Event Robotics and traveled with employee Eily Ben-Abraham, who told People, “Our robots are designed to create engaging, memorable experiences at events,” adding, “moments like this highlight both the newness of the technology and the evolving logistics involved in bringing these experiences to the entire country.”
I imagine the Bebop certainly created a memorable experience for its fellow passengers, but if I were among them, it’s not one I want to repeat.
After seeing the news, some have, perhaps understandably, reacted negatively to the press Bebop has generated, saying things like, “This is a viral marketing stunt” and “F**k this passenger for not calling and notifying them first and just forcing Southwest to handle it on the spot.”
While it was probably an intended side effect of Bebop’s adventures (it was seen taking selfies with people before boarding), even generating buzz around a flyer with robots doesn’t seem to have been part of the plan, as Ben-Abraham said he had no problem escorting the bot in an airplane cabin from Texas to California.
After Bebop’s misadventure, I expect we may see some other bots attempt to take a similar journey and replicate his viral fame, though I hope we don’t. Airline tickets are expensive and cramped enough without robot passengers filling up the seats.
They should stick to the other modes of transport and leave triggering major transport delays to red-blooded people who want to ruin people’s travel experience the old-fashioned way – with a mixture of entitlement and love of the game.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds.
