A spaceship delivery robot stuck on an icy sidewalk startles passers-by by politely thanking it for its help

A small delivery robot has surprised a passerby by “politely thanking” it for its help after it got stuck on an icy sidewalk.

This week a passerby spotted a Starship food delivery robot struggling to find a way to the large icy pier in Cambridge.

Graham Smith of Cherry Hinton in Cambridge immediately came to the robot’s aid at Checkers Close on Tuesday.

He said, “I saw this poor little moth trying to negotiate a high, slippery ledge at Checkers Close earlier today, wheels spinning like crazy.”

Then Mr. Smith and his partner, Sybil Crisford, gave her an encouraging boost.

Then he surprised them both by saying, “Thank you, have a nice day” before rolling over.

Mr Smith added: ‘Should she have been let out on her own in the weather? She didn’t even have a scarf!

His post about the bot on a local Facebook group has attracted hundreds of likes and dozens of people sharing their concern about the bot’s health.

The Starship bots have enchanted the people of Cambridge, with their polite manners, their singing and their gorgeous light-up flags during the fall after being rolled out in droves across the city.

Robots 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 when needed.

The robots use sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning to navigate, but last week’s icy conditions appeared to have made it difficult for wheels to overcome slippery barriers.

“I think the severe weather test looks like a failure” for the robot, wrote one commenter, but Mr. Smith said he’d give it an “A” for effort.

He also joked that the group should throw a “stop the cruelty to robots” party.

Alan Trim wrote: “Although they are here to replace us, they are great..”

A Starship spokesperson said: ‘Bots make more than 140,000 road crossings every day around the world, at a rate of about one every three seconds.

Most of these crossings are done independently, but in the rare instances assistance is required, bots can be monitored remotely.

“It is also true that bots are not shy every now and then in asking a friendly resident for help, especially in a new area they have recently started mapping.”