Anki Debuts Serious Robotics AI With Fun Racing Game At WWDC, Raises $50M Led By A16Z

Remember the cute Anki Drive demo from WWDC? Well what you might have missed is that the toy car racing game was just a front for a hardcore robotics artificial intelligence startup that could let machines understand exactly where they are in the physical world. Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, and Two Sigma see the potential, as they've invested a total of $50 million Series A and Series B funding to help Anki launch in the fall. Video games have long had computer-controlled players. They're the bots you shoot, dribble around, or race against. But they existed solely in the digital world.