".......discovered that their robots have manifested what is called an 'emergent behavior,' meaning they developed some kinds of instinct without having been programmed.
ยป Robots 'feel' objects with their whiskers | Emerging Technology Trends | ZDNet.com
What we know as life probably is the ability to interpret an environment. I think successfully interpreting environment by having the machine look at things with cameras is way to complicated to start a trial-and-error chain reaction. I figure that if it can store it's start location in it's track it's already having a memory and a phenotype very much. LOL !