Many motorists dream of the day they can sit back and relax while their car drives itself. And while Google and other companies are working hard to make autonomous vehicles a reality, it could take years to create a car that can negotiate complex situations on the road – including wet weather conditions. Google's self-driving cars can't currently cope in heavy rain or snow – or find their way around 99 per cent of the US, an insider has admitted. A Google Insider has admitted that the firm's cars (pictured) are incredibly reliant on maps, can't cope with wet weather conditions and are unable to'see' potholes. According to MIT Technology Review, the current prototype cars are very reliant on maps to navigate and can't react like a human driver, dodging potholes and other hazards.

When Japan hosts the summer Olympics in 2020, prime minister Shinzo Abe is determined to make it an event to remember. And what better way, he claims, than to include robotic competitors to show off the world's technical achievements. Mr Abe made the comments during a tour of robotics factories in Tokyo and Saitama, where he also announced the creation of a taskforce to treble the size of the Japanese robotics industry. The industry could help revitalise the country's economy, and Mr Abe hopes to increase its market for machines to 2.4 trillion yen (£13.8 billion or $24 billion). 'In 2020, I would like to gather all of the world's robots and aim to hold an Olympics where they compete in technical skills,' Mr Abe said.

Behind the numerous benefits of self-driving cars, being touted by Google and other manufacturers, an imminent danger is lurking. The technology could see criminals using the cars in high-speed chases, for example, or to shoot out of the window while the car drives itself. In fact, the FBI is so concerned about the threats they pose, the agency has dubbed them'potential leathal weapons' in a recent report. Files detail the FBI's concerns about self-driving vehicles, (Google's autonomous car pictured). The report said: 'Autonomy...will open up ways for a car to be more of a potential lethal weapon than it is today.'

Many drivers, tired of long journeys and tedious traffic jams, are looking forward to when self-driving cars will be an affordable option. And while Google and car makers are working on the next generation of vehicles, a $10,000 (£5,900) gadget could beat the big firms to controlling your car remotely, as soon as next year. The Cruise RP-1 claims to be the world's first'highway autopilot' and can take control of car on a motorway, keeping it safely in lane and a suitable distance from the car in front. Easy driver: The Cruise RP-1 (pictured) claims to be the world's first'highway autopilot' and can take control of car on a motorway, keeping it safely in lane and a suitable distance from the car in front The Cruise RP-1 claims to be the world's first'highway autopilot' and can take control of car on a motorway, keeping it safely in lane and a suitable distance from the car in front. It comprises a rooftop sensor unit, computer in the boot and control panel next to the driver.

For some birds, recognising their own eggs can be a matter of life or death. Scientists have used imafe recognition technology to show that birds defending their nests against the Common Cuckoo - which lays its lethal offspring in other birds' nests - have evolved distinctive patterns on their eggs in order to distinguish them from those laid by a cuckoo cheat. These patterns provide a defence against the cuckoo's trickery by helping birds reject the cuckoo eggs before they hatch and destroy the host's own brood. Scientists have shown that birds defending their nests against the Common Cuckoo - which lays its lethal offspring in other birds' nests - have evolved distinctive patterns on their eggs in order to distinguish them from those laid by a cuckoo cheat. Scientists from the University of Cambridge and Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have developed a new computer vision tool to unravel how a host bird may perceive and recognise such complex pattern information.

Brazil's World Cup may be in full swing, but teams of robotic players are busy warming up to be in with a chance of lifting another trophy. The mechanical teams are set to battle it out on the pitch in a less well-known football tournament also taking place in Brazil this summer. A group of five humanoid'Drake' robots will compete as a team at the RoboCup 2014, which kicks off in Joao Pessoa on 21 July. RoboCup is an annual international robotics competition founded in 1997. It aims to promote robotics and artificial intelligence research.

By day, Dr John Elliott is a professor in Computing and Creative Technologies at Leeds Metropolitan University. But by night, his work takes on a more out-of-this-world nature – he's devising the methods we'll need to talk to aliens. Making first contact with extraterrestrial life by detecting a signal would be one of the defining moments in the history of humanity, but what if we don't know what they're saying? That's where Dr John Elliott comes in - he's been devising methods to decode an alien language for the day he believes we'll receive a message Dr Elliot has been working on decoding languages for two decades. In 1959, Cornell physicists Gieuseppi Cocconi and Philip Morrison published an article discussing the potential to use microwave radio to communicate between stars.

They never demand pay rises, complain about their managers or behave badly off the pitch. And while they may not have the charisma of Ronaldo or the speed of Rooney, these robots certainly have some skill. Now students in Germany are planning to show just what robo-football players can do by pitting them against each in one of the biggest ever demonstrations of robotic footballing talent. The event is taking place this week in Magdeburg, North West Germany from the 2nd until the 5th of April. The robot football players are all models called'Nao' created by French firm Aldebaran Robotics.

And in the future, dashboard emotion detectors could search for signs of irritation in a bid to identify the first signs of road rage. A prototype of the device is able to read a driver's facial expressions using a tiny embedded camera. Scientists at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, developed the prototype device, which identifies a driver's emotions - including anger (pictured) - using an infrared camera placed behind the steering wheel to film their face Scientists at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, have developed the system which identifies which of the seven universal emotions a person is feeling: fear, anger, joy, sadness, disgust, surprise, or suspicion. They believe their technology could be of use in medicine, marketing, gaming and in driver safety. 'We know that in addition to fatigue, the emotional state of the driver is a risk factor, the researchers said.

Emerging from a lake, a giant amphibious drone gingerly picks its way over Russia's Rzhevka military training ground. This huge drone is the latest in a menagerie of automated robots to be developed worldwide, adding to what some have described as the creation of ground-based robotic armies. Its appearance comes as large organisations, such as Google and Amazon, invest in drone technology, with some experts claiming the it could lead to a full on robotics war by 2020. Air-based drones have been under development in Russia for some time, with reports last year that the country had been developing a new 20-tonne attack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). These latest images, however, provide a glimpse into Russia's future capabilities in ground-based drones.