Fourteen-year-old Hayato Kazami becomes the registered driver of Asurada, an advanced racing car with an AI system. A novice thrown into a demanding championship, he must learn to handle the car and its physical forces while negotiating advice from an intelligent machine and a short-handed team.
The team around Hayato has work that the AI cannot perform. Mechanics prepare the car and keep it running between races, while rival manufacturers develop machines of their own. The championship sets Hayato and Asurada inside a contest of people, preparation and competing technology.
Asurada is the name of both the car and its artificial intelligence. The cockpit places that voice beside Hayato’s hands on the controls, turning racing advice into a conversation. Hayato still has to judge what to do with it: the machine’s ability to speak does not automatically give its driver the experience to respond.
