Anki allows friends to compete using Anki app-enabled smartphones as steering wheels, but the bigger innovation is battling autonomous Anki cars that boast different moves, weapons and catchphrases. With video games now the recreation of choice for kids and many adults, toys that use technology to fuse the virtual and real worlds have a better chance of snaring consumer attention and wallets. Regardless of your interest in tiny robotic racing cars, Anki matters because it's pioneering a space that ultimately may represent the future of physical toys. Where Anki's vehicles once mixed it up on a rollable mat with a fixed configuration, engineers have come up with modular, flexible plastic pieces that snap together with magnets.Ī number of track configurations are possible with the 10-piece starter kit, while an infinite number can be created with additional pieces ($10 to $30 per piece). While the new Anki cars are indeed smarter around the track thanks to beefed-up software, the real showstopper actually is the track. "It's the same as a Google car, but without a $70,000 laser scanner on the roof." "This truly is the next generation of Anki," says Tappeiner, Anki's president. So on Saturday at Toy Fair in New York, the company will introduce Anki Overdrive, due next fall, featuring significant tweaks to the original product at the same $150 price point. Player data indicate the game has made its way into homes in 30 countries, and its cars have collectively driven some 800,000 miles.īut apparently that sort of performance isn't good enough for Anki, founded by former Carnegie Mellon University robotics expert Boris Sofman and his engineer pals, Mark Palatucci and Hanns Tappeiner. Its $150 starter kit was 's second-best-selling toy last Christmas, topped only by a Frozen doll. Since Anki Drive's debut at an Apple developers conference in 2013, the high-tech slotless slot car has been off to the races. Posters of the mean machines line the walls. That's because the company's sole product is a 3-inch-long toy car that can drive itself around a track. SAN FRANCISCO - Although many of the folks walking the halls of Anki Drive boast doctoral degrees in science, the place they work looks like a rec room. Watch Video: Robotics firm Anki revs up its toy racing cars
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