- Bebop the robot tried to get on a Southwest flight
- He had a seat and a ticket, but bumped up against the airline’s baggage rules
- The flight did eventually take off, but arrived an hour later than planned
Bored with threatening jobs, art, and marathon records, robots have turned their attention towards 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 take 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 issue 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 went against Southwest’s large carry-on policy.
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Things snowballed from here. Flight attendants had plenty of questions for Bebop after his initial policy violation, questions they needed answers to before the plane could take off safely. This is what caused the delay, as well as saw Bebop moved to a window seat and having his large lithium-ion battery removed to comply with weight limits and battery regulations — similar to the reasons Bebop was flying in the cabin, and not in the plane’s hold.
An unexpected journey delay
Bebop is operated by Elite Event Robotics and was traveling 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 novelty of the technology and the evolving logistics that come with bringing these experiences nationwide.”
I imagine Bebop has certainly created a memorable experience for his fellow passengers, though if I were among them, it’s not an experience I’d want to repeat.
Upon seeing the news, some have, perhaps understandably, responded 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 deal with it onsite.”
Though, while generating buzz around a robot flyer was probably an intended side effect of Bebop’s adventure (it was seen taking selfies with people before boarding), causing a delay doesn’t appear to have been part of the plan, as Ben-Abraham said he had no troubles escorting the bot in a plane cabin from Texas to California.
Following Bebop’s misadventure, I expect we might see some other bots try to take a similar journey and repeat his viral fame, though I hope we don’t. Plane tickets are pricey and cramped enough without robot passengers filling up the seats.
They should stick to the other transport methods, and leave triggering major transport delays to red-blooded human beings who want to ruin people’s travel experience the old-fashioned way — with a mix of entitlement and a love of the game.
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