A tiny delivery robot took a passerby by surprise by ‘politely thanking’ him for his help after it got stuck on an icy pavement.
This week a passerby spotted a Starship food-delivery robot struggling to find a way up the large and icy curb in Cambridge.
Graham Smith from Cherry Hinton in Cambridge, immediately came to the bot’s aid in Chequers Close on Tuesday.
He said: ‘I saw this poor little mite trying to negotiate a high, slippery kerb in Chequers Close earlier today, wheels spinning like crazy.’
Mr Smith and his partner Sybil Crisford then gave it an encouraging push up the curb.
It then took them both aback by saying ‘thank you, have a good day’ before rolling away.
Mr Smith added: ‘Should it have been let out on its own in these weather conditions? It didn’t even have a scarf!’
His post about the bot on a local Facebook group attracted hundreds of likes and dozens of people sharing their concern for the bot’s wellbeing.
The Starship bots have charmed residents of Cambridge, with their polite manners, singing and adorable light-up flags over the autumn after they were rolled out in droves across the city.
The bots affectionately known as ‘grocery badgers’ have taken over the city of Cambridge to deliver groceries to residents and can be seen lining up outside supermarkets to take orders as and when needed.
The bots use sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning to navigate but the icy conditions of the last week seem to have made it hard for the wheels to overcome slippery kerbs.
One commenter wrote ‘I think the extreme weather test is looking like a fail’ for the bot, but Mr Smith said he would give him an ‘A’ for effort.
He also joked that the group should start a ‘stop cruelty to automatons’ party.
Alan Trim wrote: ‘Even though they’re here to replace us, they are adorable..’
A spokesperson from Starship said: ‘The robots make more than 140,000 road crossings every day around the world, nearly one every three seconds.
‘Most of these crossings are done autonomously, but on the rare occasion assistance is required, the robots can be monitored remotely.
‘It’s also true that every now and then the robots are not shy in asking a friendly resident for help, particularly in a new area they’ve recently started mapping.’
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