Hot Wheels Augmoto puts AR lightning, missiles in your race – CNET

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The Hot Wheels Augmoto race track adds special effects to your car races.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Hot Wheels is adding lightning and missiles, along with smoke, to its next racetrack, and it’s doing this using augmented reality.

The Hot Wheels Augmoto Augmented Reality Racing track, on display at New York Toy Fair, lets two players race each other using cars controlled from an app (in the case of our demo, from an iPad).

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When racing, players can use the iPad not only to control the car but also to see lightning effects, track enhancements and power-ups that can be used against an opponent. Should your car take damage, it will appear on the track with smoke billowing from it. You’ll need to tap the car to repair it.

The power-up system is similar to Hot Wheels’ previous AI Intelligent Race System set, which also includes weapons, though they weren’t visible in any way. In this case, you can see what’s going on using the app’s augmented-reality features.

The Augmoto set is scheduled for release this fall, and will cost $120 (roughly £85 or AU$150).