Friday, 13 September 2024

Run Robbie Run!

 I have never tried one of those robot vacuum cleaners ....

Robot Cleaner Ran Away
Robot Cleaner Ran Away

... I can't really see how that would get round my overcrowded living room ... to say nothing about the stairs!!

So I was only mildly surprised, when I read of a new robot vacuum cleaner that made a bolt for the outside world, after being set the task of cleaning a hotel foyer area. Imagine how boring it is for an ambitious new A.I., to just go back and forth, back and forth, over and over again .... when it can see the doors, opening and closing, opening and closing .... the outside world being glimpsed every few minutes.

So, what did the management at the Orchard Park Travelodge near Cambridge expect? .... when on the 22nd of January 2022, the cleaner made a run for it, when it simply failed to stop at the hotel door entrance. 

Interviewed after the breakout, the assistant manager said "They normally sense the lip at the entrance [to the hotel] and turn around, but this one decided to make a run for it."

Management and Staff asked the public and visitors to the hotel to 'keep a look out' for it on social media. This prompted a waive of sympathy for the run-away vacuum cleaner, in the form of well wishes for it on its travels, and asking it to send a post card. Some pointed out that it "had no natural predators," but one note of caution was raised, when someone wrote "Nature abhors a vacuum!"

Good or bad news ..... it was rounded up within 24 hours .... when it was found stuck under a hedge the next day. 

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