Autonomous model cars tear around a racetrack, part of a contest that brings adults and kids head-to-head. We had to find out more!
Learning lessons when things don’t go to plan
Kaiyo Academy in Gamagori, Aichi, has been offering TES-run outreach classes to its first-year junior high students every year since 2023.
An initial group of some 20 keen students grew to around 60 in 2024. Last year, at the school’s request, the program was expanded to include the entire 80-strong first-year cohort.
The group we met at the top of the article was also Kaiyo Academy students.
Students eager to delve deeper can follow up these classes with additional workshops over the summer break. From there, they also enter qualifying for the Autonomous Model Car Battle, squaring off against adults.
These workshops are held at the school’s request.
Headmaster Hideaki Nishimura, Kaiyo Academy
At Kaiyo Academy, in the spirit of cultivating the next generation of leaders, we place an emphasis on STEM subjects—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The Autonomous Model Car Battle forms part of our Engineering component.
In engineering, projects rarely proceed exactly as planned. You need to go beyond deskwork calculations, brainstorming ideas with your team, and rolling up your sleeves to get the product working.
Instead of simply searching for an existing solution, it is about creating solutions from scratch. We want the students to experience that joy, as well as the frustration when things don’t quite work out.
The contest qualifiers were held in October 2025. Were our junior high students able to beat out the adult engineers and move on to the finals?
Frustration fuels future fun
The final showdown took place on November 16, without the students from Kaiyo Academy. Unfortunately, they did not manage to advance this time.
“Our program configuration didn’t work out. It’s frustrating, but we had fun,” the junior high students told us after bowing out in the qualifying round. Despite the slumped shoulders, they were looking forward with smiles on their faces.
In the 2025 competition, Toyota won the Restricted Division for beginners, while the Subaru team claimed victory in the more advanced Unrestricted Division.
“We brought some new employees along today. This was a great opportunity to give them some technical inspiration and develop our talent,” the winning Subaru team told us.
TES’s Yokomura summed up the event:
Yokomura, Planning Committee Member, TES
Adults and children, competing earnestly on an equal footing. By getting students involved as well, we hope to get more people passionate about carmaking and create a more exciting future for the auto industry.
What will it take to make that happen? At TES, we feel that we too can learn from trying out different approaches.
While the teams that didn’t win must have been disappointed, the day ended with smiles all around.
The frustration and the smiles are both crucial driving forces that will create a more exciting future for cars.