Weird science: The 10 oddest tech stories of 2014

Online telepaths, culinary AI, criminal drones -- the tech world was full of offbeat surprises this year

Robot hitchhikes across Canada
Then there's the curious case of the Canadian hitchhiking robot. In July, researchers from a pair of Canadian universities deployed hitchBOT onto the highways of the Great White North, where the experimental 'bot ultimately traveled from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Victoria, British Columbia -- hitchhiking the entire way.


The project was part of a larger research study concerning the utility of social robots and the psychology of human kindness. Using its LED-screen face to petition for rides, hitchBOT made the coast-to-coast trip in 21 days, plugging into cars' cigarette lighters to recharge, posting videos on social media, and relying on the kindness of strangers. Canada, generally regarded as the planet's nicest nation-state, may be the only country where this could have worked.