Yes, you are reading that headline right. A robot in Russia escaped from the lab where it was being programmed to move autonomously, causing a traffic jam before it was captured and taken back to its home.

Out of Promobot Labs in Perm, Russia, this new tech is being programmed to navigate through busy crowds, offer directions to people, translate and answer general questions. Someone (who probably is now out of a job) forgot to close a gate, and this helpful bot wandered out in the street for about 40 minutes on its own before the battery finally expired and they were able to reclaim it.

This video shows as it just chills, sitting in the middle of the road and forcing traffic to manoeuvre around it.

Some people are claiming publicity stunt, which seems pretty likely, with innovative tech like this being developed it seems pretty ludicrous that someone would just forget to shut a gate, and that was the only thing shielding the robot from the public.