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Are self driving cars on the decline?

You may have heard that the self-driving car is dead. In March, New York Magazine, published an article titled “The Self-Driving Car Bubble Has Popped.” The article was triggered, in large part, by the news that Apple had halted its electric car project after reportedly spending billions of dollars over years of development. This news among others, like the recall of GM’s Cruise autonomous vehicles and recent calls for self driving vehicles to pass more robust safety and driver’s tests, has created a narrative that the Jetsons-esque self driving car revolution predicted by technologists may never come. 

This couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Self driving cars will be an important technology in the future of humankind

While the industry has encountered headwinds over the years, the self driving car industry is alive, well, and growing. A report from the Chamber of Progress, published in April-2024, found that the Autonomous Vehicle industry will require over 114,000 more workers over the next 15 years, with that figure potentially rising to 455,000 workers. And these are high paying jobs–Glassdoor estimates that an Autonomous Driving Software Engineer in the USA makes a median total pay of $143,000 per year. 

The robotaxi business is driving the growth with companies like Tesla, Uber, and Waymo leading the way. Waymo seemingly has a head start, as the company’s self driving car fleet has already completed more than 100,000 self-driving rides per week and in 2023 it led the way in testing mileage. According to the California DMV Autonomous Vehicle Disengagement Report, Waymo represented 63.8% of all Autonomous Vehicle testing mileage in the state. As for Tesla, just yesterday the company revealed it’s bold design and plan for the Robotaxi and Robovan, as Elon Musk proclaimed that we’ll soon take the leap from “supervised full self driving, to unsupervised full self driving.”

What does the future hold for self driving cars?

So what will fuel further growth for Autonomous Vehicles? Safety and economics. New Scientist reported that a recent study suggested self-driving cars may be safer than human drivers in routine conditions, but that the technology struggled in less optimal conditions like low-light and when performing turns. The good news is that these problems can be solved by talented software engineers and data scientists using AI and Computer Vision. As self-driving cars become safer and the technology becomes commoditized, they will become more affordable. As they become more affordable, they’ll take up more road share. 

Working in the autonomous vehicle industry

If you’re interested in being one of the professionals driving the growth and innovation of the autonomous vehicle industry in the coming years, there’s a range of roles and skills you can pursue to give yourself that opportunity. Companies like Tesla, Waymo, Cruise, and others are frequently hiring engineers to focus on motion planning, AI, QA, systems, platform, and more. To position yourself for these types of roles, there’s a nuanced skill set that you’ll want to add to your resume.

Beyond a strong foundation in calculus, statistics, and object-oriented programming, you’ll want to demonstrate proficiency in AI skills (such as machine learning and computer vision), sensor fusion, and localization. Robotics engineering and familiarity with embedded systems will also appeal to many prospective employers in the autonomous vehicle space. 

Udacity’s School of Autonomous Vehicles was created over eight years ago to train tech professionals in these specific skill sets, and the field remains more relevant than ever. In that time, we’ve updated our Self-Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree program, and expanded our offering to include Robotics, AI, Embedded Systems, and more.

If you want to be a part of the Autonomous Vehicle revolution, get started with our Introduction to Self-Driving Cars Nanodegree program. With that foundation you’ll get the skills you need to solve real problems that make self-driving cars safer, more efficient, and ultimately more accessible. And self-driving cars are only the start to a future that includes flying cars and autonomous flight. Oh yeah, we have a Nanodegree program for that too.

Jared Molton
Jared Molton
Jared Molton is the Vice President of the consumer business at Udacity. Over the past decade he has led product, business, and tech teams at Fortune 500 companies including Amazon and Chewy. He has an MBA from University of North Carolina - Kenan Flagler Business school.