Anki sends its toy racing cars into Overdrive - USA TODAY
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. That's because the company's sole product is a 3-inch-long toy car that can drive itself around a track. Since Anki Drive's debut at an Apple developers conference in 2013, the high-tech slotless slot car has been off to the races. But 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. 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. While the new Anki cars are indeed smarter around the track thanks to beefed-up software, the real showstopper actually is the track. 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. A 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). 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. Source: www.usatoday.com
