"When you look at physical entertainment and its history, there has been really little innovation in decades, pretty much, in what you could do," he said. Over the next few years, Anki set about creating the product that no one would see until mid-2013, based on the belief that there was a vast and untapped potential in the physical consumer space and that an entertainment product was the best way to introduce its technology to the world. "You have four-year-olds that love cars, and you have 94-year-olds that love cars." "There's an appeal to them that's completely cross-generational," Sofman told Polygon. Within that broad category, they decided to focus on cars because of their inherently broad allure. They identified and targeted a sector that was being largely ignored: consumer products.Įarly on in the partnership, they decided that entertainment should be their first focus. The trio formed what would eventually become Anki in early 2008 based in part on an observation: Most robotics research and technology was geared toward the agriculture, defense, industrial and space sectors. "There has been really little innovation in decades." The three friends met while enrolled in the robotics PhD program at Carnegie Mellon University and became close friends, in part because of their complimentary interests. Polygon spoke with Sofman this week about his company, its lofty goals to lead pack in the consumer robotics industry and why, after years of work in obscurity, Anki chose a real world video game to introduce its work to the world.īoris Sofman co-founded Anki with Mark Palatucci and Hanns Tappeiner. "This is a video game in the real world," Sofman said over the applause. Aiden sped through the track alone, victorious, and the crowd began to applaud. The blue, orange and white cars careened off the track in response to the virtual attack. Well, nothing until Aiden unveiled his arsenal. Aware of their surroundings, they formed fluid walls to block him as he steered, accelerated and decelerated. Aiden tried, but the original three moved to block him at every turn. Aiden's mission remained the same, but the original three had a new objective: Don't let Aiden pass. Sofman's partner used the app to change the cars' behavior. It was an intriguing, if momentarily confusing demo until Sofman dropped the hammer. Just over a lap after he'd begun, Aiden had passed the white car, well on his way to lapping blue and orange. He hit the gas, navigated through the southern bend and squeezed by the blue car on the inside of the second turn. Then Sofman added a fourth car, a cherry red speedster he called Aiden, which he said was programmed to pass the others.Īiden began with his virtual pedal to the metal, popped a wheelie, righted himself and passed the orange car by the time he reached the first turn.
The cars were driving themselves, he said, making decisions in real-time, tethered through Bluetooth to an app running on an iPhone not far downstage. The blue, orange and white cars began to circle the track in various formations. Sofman and his partner placed three small cars on the mat, which was painted to look like an oval racetrack with a gentile upward bend in the straightway closest to the audience.
Sofman introduced the company with a few sentences about artificial intelligence and robotics and rolled out the rug-like swatch at center stage to revealed his company's first product, Anki Drive. About 10 minutes into Apple's WWDC 2013 keynote last month, CEO Tim Cook invited the first and only third-party developer to share the stage for a few minutes.Īs Cook walked off, he shook hands with Boris Sofman, the co-founder and CEO of Anki, who walked onstage with what looked like a rolled-up rug underneath his left arm.