How do you teach a rat to drive? Inside the world’s tiniest driving school
Published on Nov 05, 2025 at 10:38 AM (UTC+4)
by Molly Davidson
Last updated on Nov 05, 2025 at 10:38 AM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
A pair of rescue rats named Kuzko and Kronk are learning to drive at the world’s tiniest driving school.
Their custom ‘Rat Rod’ EV was built as a science-inspired enrichment project – part experiment, part pure joy.
Since then, the account behind it has grown, the little EV has been refined, and two new rescues have taken the wheel.
The project lives on as a miniature driving school, where patience, engineering, and memory all meet behind the world’s smallest windshield.
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How to teach a rat to drive, one pedal at a time
The Emperors of Mischief Instagram account is run by a family in Canada who rescue and train rats using enrichment-based learning.
Their father built the Rat Rod in 2023 after reading a University of Richmond study showing that rats who learn to drive experience lower stress levels.
Designed as a research-inspired learning tool, it’s become the centerpiece of their ongoing behavioral work.
And watching it in action is quite the adorable delight.
If you’ve ever wondered how you actually teach a rat to drive, it starts with trust… and snacks.
At the world’s tiniest driving school, each session begins long before the car moves.
The rats being rewarded simply for approaching it.
Curiosity gets a treat.
So does a sniff.
Hop into the cabin? Another rice puff.
Within days, the car stops being scary and starts looking like a moving buffet.
Once comfort turns to confidence, the real training begins.
The Rat Rod runs on a three-pedal system – left to turn, middle to go, right to steer back – all powered by tiny rat-sized pressure plates.
Every time the pedal sends the car forward, a treat appears through the porthole in the windshield.
It’s a perfect loop: pedal, move, snack, repeat.
Phoebe, the newest tiny recruit, figured that out fast.
She mastered the accelerator, then began practicing reverse drives.
Backing the car toward her reward with calm precision.
Spark, her sister, needed more patience.
She couldn’t quite grasp the left-turn pedal and kept biting at it instead.
Her humans solved that by reprogramming the car so only that pedal worked, forcing her to experiment until she got it right.
It’s a process built entirely on curiosity and positive reinforcement .
Progress shows up in motion – smoother starts, quicker corrections, fewer bumps into table legs.
By the end, they’re not testing the car anymore, they’re commanding it.
The world’s tiniest driving school is the project that keeps evolving
What started as a small project for two rescue rats has blossomed into a continuing family effort to save more.
And each new clip shows quiet refinements.
A cleaner turn here, a faster response there – proof that progress in this lab comes small but steady.
The family plans to introduce obstacle courses next, pushing both car and crew a little further while continuing to study how the learning unfolds.
And the family says the rats are thriving thanks to the daily challenges and, of course, the love they’re shown by the family.
Sadly, both Kuzko and Kronk have now passed away, but their legacy remains the blueprint for everything that’s come since.
And with Phoebe, Spark, and every new addition to come, the project keeps proving what it set out to show – that curiosity, once sparked, doesn’t stop moving.
In the world’s tiniest driving school, progress comes one pedal press at a time.
To see more, follow Emperors of Mischief of Instagram.
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Molly Davidson is a Junior Content Writer at Supercar Blondie. Based in Melbourne, she holds a double Bachelor’s degree in Arts/Law from Swinburne University and a Master’s of Writing and Publishing from RMIT. Molly has contributed to a range of magazines and journals, developing a strong interest in lifestyle and car news content. When she’s not writing, she’s spending quality time with her rescue English staffy, Boof.
