This Canadian speaks well, in both English and a little French, tweets and posts photos on Instragram, and wants to travel more than 6,000 kilometers from Nova Scotia to  British Columbia. But he can't walk, so he wants to go through the journey hitching rides cross-country.

On Sunday, hitchBOT - yes, he's a robot - started his journey when Brian and Anne Saulnier picked him up from the side of the road outside Halifax, and seatbelted him into the backseat for the first of what will surely be many hops until he gets to Victoria.

Like Us on Facebook

And on his first 24 hours on the journey, he has made it to Quebec, about 1,000 kilometers from the origin.

His developers says he has one big mission that his creators wanted him to do -  prove that humans can be trusted.

Dr. Frauke Zeller, assistant professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, says of hitchBOT, "We are asking the question whether robots can trust human beings - and should hitchBOT arrive in Victoria, in all its parts, this would show that 'yes, they can.'"

That means, if hitchBOT gets to his destination in one piece, humans - or Canadians - can be trusted.

On his own website, www.hitchbot.me, hitchBOT says - or his creators say - that he wanted to find out if what he'd been reading about hitchhiking in Canada is true.

"We expect hitchBOT to be charming and trustworthy enough in its conversation to secure rides through Canada, " says Dr. Zeller

With his developers regarding him as  part science experiment, part art project, hitchBOT 's body is made from a plastic beer pail, he sports a garbage can hat,  and his head and "brain" are protected by a cake saver.  His face is mostly LED lights, which also shows his expressions, according to a press release from his creators. Main developer Harris Smith says hitchBOT is made from "odds and ends cobbled together."

HitchBOT's body is wrapped up in solar panels, but he does request motorists to charge him up from their cigarette lighters, so he could continue to tweet and used his embedded GPS - and converse with people.

The robot doesn't walk, and stands only when propped up with a build-in tripod. But he is able to relay route instructions via digital voice and through his LED panels, so motorist would know where best to drop him off.

It does know its exact location and can plan its journey, thanks to its 3G and wifi connectivity.

Now what remains to be done is for motorists to pick him up where he was last dropped off, bring him to a location closer and closer to the west and drop him off could see him and pick him up for the next hop, and plug him into the cigarette lighter so he could continue to report on his progress.

No set routes, no set arrival dates. If all goes well and humans treat him well, hitchBOT will be in Victoria in a few days.

TagsNova Scotia, British Columbia