“Ugh, look, there’s that garbage drone again...” your neighbour sneered, turning away as the robot made its way down the street, collecting the rubbish and tossing it into a larger collection bin which it tugged along behind it. “I wish they’d do it earlier so we didn’t have to run into them. They’re so creepy...”
Honestly, you thought it was pretty cool. The robot looked up at you as it passed, the neon lines along its strange, slender body flashing softly in the colour of the company that owned it.
“Thank you,” you said as it grabbed up your refuse with a clawed hand and lobbed it into the bin with the rest of the bags.
At the sound of your voice, it paused, something flickering in the cameras on its face which allowed it to ‘see’. “Repeat?”
“Thank you,” you said again.
“Unit is simply performing its function...” it shrugged.
“I can still thank you though...”
Something clicked and whirred, and you wondered if it was alright. It carried on without any further reaction.
Next week, you made sure you were around to thank it, watching its reactions more closely, and the week after that too...
One week, it twitched softly as it approached. It fumbled a bag and dropped it.
The next week, there was a different robot collecting refuse, and it wouldn’t respond to you or acknowledge you at all...