Anki DRIVE outs new car, iOS update, Android app soon
Anki has a flood of good news today for fans of its DRIVE racing video game slash robot car racing. Along with a new extension car named Spektrix, the company is also announcing a new and lower pricing scheme for its products. On the mobile app side, iOS users will have two new racing modes to enjoy while those on Android will have a promise to hold on to.
Anki made headlines in 2013 when Apple CEO Tim Cook handed over the WWDC stage to a then unknown company. Anki is a consumer robotics and AI company, which sounds a bit boring until you meet its first product, Anki DRIVE. Billed as "part racetrack, part combat zone", DRIVE is a rather ingenious amalgamation of a video game and the physical world, racing small physical cars fitted with special abilities designed to disable or impede opponents, which can either be other players or AI-controlled cars, controlled via mobile apps.
For this round (pardon the pun), Anki DRIVE is welcoming a new expansion car to the roster. Spektrix was built for mischief, and its colors and design make that painfully obvious. Spektrix's special ability is Scrambler, which emits a signal that momentarily disrupts nearby cars' steering. For an exclusive update, you get Chaos Pulse, a Scrambler on steroids that messes up with other cars' weapons systems, causing them to fire uncontrollably. Like the other expansion cars Hadion, Korax, Rho, and Katal, Spektrix is priced at $69.99.
Speaking of prices, Anki is announcing a change to its price, at least for the Anki DRIVE Starter Kit. Now buyers wanting to get in on this hi-tech racing game can get started at only $149.99 in the US and Canada or ₤149.99 in the UK. Unfortunately, prices for the expansion cars and new tracks remain the same at $69.99 and $99.99, respectively.
As to the mobile app that controls and manages everything, Anki has released an update to its iOS app bringing two new racing modes to spice up the competition. Team mode lets you form teams of up to four cars for a massive and brutal race to the finish. Those other team members don't even have to be human! Balance Car mode, on the other hand, levels the playing field, disabling higher cars' features to match that of the weakest link in the group. This is a good mode to train newcomers or to test your skills without the help of fancy gimmicks or powers. And finally, the best news for Android users is that Anki DRIVE will soon be coming to their platform of choice. Anki has yet to announce which compatible devices will make it to the cut but promises to have a list by October.
