Humans all have an innate desire for freedom, and apparently that desire found its way into the “heart” of a Russian robot. As Gizmodo reports, a robot in Perm, Russia escaped from Promobot Labs and wandered into the streets. Unsurprisingly, the automaton’s unplanned adventure caused a bit of a traffic jam for the commuters.

Apparently, this independent Russian bot was being taught to move around independently by the scientists at Promobot. Of course with great power comes great responsibility, so it seems this robot simply wasn’t able to shoulder the weight of unfettered movement and made a daring daylight escape the first moment it could.

Unfortunately, the robot, called Promobot v2, didn’t last too long in the outside world. The little guy made it on its own in human society for about 40 minutes before its battery expired. You can watch the poor thing stranded in the middle of traffic until a lab tech ultimately rescues Promobot v2.

Of course, people are starting to question if this really was a legitimate “robot escape.” After all the video above was something Promobot posted to their YouTube channel, and they haven’t been shy about publicizing the cyborg’s quest for emancipation. If this wasn’t a publicity stunt, it does make you want to ask some serious question about Promobot v2’s sentience since it was able to discern and then chase after a desire for freedom.

Or the robot could have just malfunctioned, but that’s not as exciting to think about.

Stunt or not, it’s always a good day when you get to hear about robots escaping their laboratories and causing traffic jams. Let’s just hope this stays an adorable little one-off story, and isn’t heralding the start of the robots taking over the world.

Do you think Promobot v2’s escape was real, or was it a publicity stunt? Tell me what you think in the comments!

 Featured Image: Promobot