Uber car ride service has a problem. The problem is not that the company lacks customers eager to use its services or investors eager to finance it: Uber now operates in 70 cities, and recently it raised $1.2 billion from investors. Uber’s problem is that various state and local governments are seeking to throttle it.

Although androids often get a bad rap in science-fiction movies and video games, real-life androids are already improving people’s lives—and making “careers” of it. Tokyo’s National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation has actually “hired” two lifelike androids: Kodomoroid will read the latest news from the Internet, and Otonaroid will converse with visitors about science and technology.