“It was quite a setback, and we didn’t really expect it,” hitchBOT co-creator Frauke Zeller told CNN at the time.

hitchBot’s untimely dismemberment isn’t a unique case. For years, humans have relished opportunities to kick, punch, trip, crush, and run over anything remotely resembling a robot. This penchant for machine violence could move from funny to potentially concerning as a new wave of humanoid robots is being built to work alongside people in manufacturing facilities. But a growing body of research suggests we may be more likely to feel bad for our mechanical assistants and even take it easy on them if they express sounds of human-like pain. In other words, hitchBot may have fared better if it had been programmed to beg for mercy.