It goes without saying that if you know (or guess) the model or function you are trying to implement, then you don't need machine learning. Toy problems like t

It goes without saying that if you know (or guess) the model or function you are trying to implement, then you don't need machine learning. Toy problems like this are still interesting because they demonstrate techniques that are applicable to bigger problems. I'm guessing the network in the car game doesn't need more than one layer and two outputs (acceleration vector), but that is besides the point. The technique being demonstrated is the ability of GA (or maybe particle filters), to find "optimal" weights for a network given whatever simulator. This is always interesting, especially when done with graphics like this.