A toy system includes a drivable surface that includes location encoding markings. A toy vehicle or mobile agent is provided that includes a drive motor, an imaging system for taking images of the markings, a vehicle wireless transceiver, and a microcontroller operatively coupled to the motor, the imaging system, and the vehicle wireless transceiver. A basestation is provided that includes a controller operatively coupled to a basestation wireless transceiver. Via wireless communication between the wireless transceivers of the toy vehicle and the basestation, an action to be implemented by the toy vehicle can be determined by the basestation and communicated to the toy vehicle, whereupon the microcontroller of the toy vehicle controls detailed movement of the toy vehicle on the drivable surface based on images taken of the markings of the drivable surface by the imaging system to cause the toy vehicle to implement the action on the drivable surface.