Robotics & Automation News

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Robotic toymaker Anki to close down

Anki, a startup company which made robotic toy cars and trucks, is planning to close its doors, according to a report on the Recode website.

The company had raised more than $200 million in funding for the venture, and generated $100 million in revenue in 2017, but is now making all of its 200 employees redundant.

In a statement to Recode, the company says that it had been left “without significant funding” which meant it could not finance its hardware and software development plans going forward.

It seemed to be going well, with Robotics and Automation News reporting the launch of its new “robotic supertrucks” a couple of years ago.

At the time, the company was hugely optimistic, with co-founder and CEO Boris Sofman saying that the company was looking forward to rolling out new hardware and software products.

However, in a time when most young people would probably choose a games console and play inside virtual worlds, physical toys that take up space in the real world had perhaps lost some of their traditional appeal.

For the generation of people who grew up playing on things like Scalextric and Total Control Racing, or TCR, it may seem puzzling why the misguided youngsters of today would ignore robotic cars and trucks.

But such is the nature of today’s cultural malaise, where virtual cars are preferred to real cars.

What is the world coming to?