Hot Wheels Are Now AI-Powered, Making Us Feel Even Older

A few years ago, the startup Anki impressed the crowd at an Apple event by showing off some toy race cars with AI capability baked in. One wouldn't expect the toy-car giant Hot Wheels to sit back and let a little startup do donuts all over its turf, right? First, the similarities between this system and Anki's: Both use specially encoded tracks and infrared sensors under each car to guide the vehicles around the course. In Hot Wheels AI, you can race against the "computer" or another human; in the computer-driven mode, the cars will just stay on the road no matter what. Like the second-generation Anki Overdrive package, Hot Wheels' tracks are modular, and you can piece together your own courses out of 20 included pieces.