Unfortunately, Robot abuse isn't new.

From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HitchBOT

hitchBOT was a Canadian hitchhiking robot created by professors David Harris Smith of McMaster University and Frauke Zeller of Toronto Metropolitan University in 2013. It gained international attention for successfully hitchhiking across Canada, Germany and the Netherlands.
Still in 2015, its attempt to hitchhike across the United States ended when it was stripped, dismembered, and decapitated in Philadelphia.