Google's got a robot dog that stalks indoors, haunts dreams

This is how it starts: you feel bad seeing the robot "dog" get kicked, and the next thing you know it's nipping at your heels, pushing you back to work in the salt mines. Instead of using the film and TV trope to illustrate how morally bankrupt a villain truly is, Google-owned Boston Dynamics employs it to show off "Spot": its latest quadruped, with an amazing ability to self-stabilize. The bot appears considerably more lithe than the AlphaDog it races up a hill, and can even roam in a tight pack with another unit. And unlike the diminutive Little Dog, Spot has a sensor-laden "head" that Boston Dynamics says helps it conquer a variety of ground cover.

Since Google's newest bot gets its power via electricity and hydraulics move its fancy feet, that seems a likely explanation for why it's relatively silent compared to its bigger counterparts. At 160 pounds -- and running as quiet as it does -- Spot is arguably one of the team's most capable robo-dogs yet... whatever it eventually ends up doing.