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Hello everyone! @olivercameron, CEO of Voyage here. Drew is currently busy at our Testing Grounds shipping a new release, but if there's any Voyage or self-dri

Hello everyone! @olivercameron, CEO of Voyage here. Drew is currently busy at our Testing Grounds shipping a new release, but if there's any Voyage or self-driving car related questions I can answer, I'd love to hear em'! My previous life was at Udacity, where I spent 4 years working on their self-driving car and machine learning curriculum. I learned a ton from working with Sebastian Thrun and the rest of the Udacity team.

distorted_torus 8y ago
Hi Oliver, Thanks for taking questions. Few questions: 1) What online resources do you recommend for someone that wants to go from beginner to skilled in the field of self-driving cars? Is there a sequence of courses that you could recommend? 2) What important concepts should this self-learner hone in on as they learn? 3) How can someone that does 1) (and has projects) break into the self-driving cars career?
- olivercameron 8y ago
  Hello! Great questions. 1) If you already have a good grasp of Python, I always advise to start with the AI for Robotics MOOC at Udacity, which is my favorite class of all time. Once that's done, I'd take a look at their Deep Learning classes and the Self-Driving Car Nanodegree. 2) I think it's crucial to get to grips with how the whole stack works, so I always advise to get to grips with a middleware like ROS. Also, don't be afraid to dabble in algorithms (think problems in motion planning, computer vision, etc.) 3) The traditional programs (think PhD programs) create a lot of specialists focused on a single domain, but the industry is in dire need of more generalists. An engineer who is able to dive into any part of the stack is a huge value-add!
  - distorted_torus 8y ago
    Great answer, thank you! I will look into those courses and dig deep into the algorithms/stack.
    - olivercameron 8y ago
      Ping me when you're ready to start a job search in the space :) oliver@voyage.auto
      - distorted_torus 8y ago
        Will do! Thank you!
      - pkaye 8y ago
        Where is your engineering team located? I have a friend who might be interested.
        olivercameron 8y ago
        We are based in Palo Alto, CA. We are also open to remote work for the right person! Please refer to oliver@voyage.auto.
stephengillie 8y ago
What are your thoughts on binocular cameras vs LIDAR for car vision? Will we ever get by on just 2 cameras?
- olivercameron 8y ago
  LIDAR all the way. High-resolution, long-range physics-accurate depth is so crucial. We will one day have a fully autonomous car with just a few cameras, but we may also have ultra-low cost high-performance LIDAR then.
deleted 8y ago
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ma2rten 8y ago
How do you see the market for self-driving cars? How far is Waymo ahead of the competition? Who are the top competitors? How do you see your own position as a smaller startup?
fergie 8y ago
Hi Oliver It seems like the best self-driving systems are currently struggling with what seem to be fairly fundamental deficiencies (cant react to stationary objects on highways, dont react well to children and cyclists) Is this a valid observation? What do you see as the biggest limitations in the current generation of self-driving technology?

distorted_torus 8y ago

Hi Oliver, Thanks for taking questions. Few questions: 1) What online resources do you recommend for someone that wants to go from beginner to skilled in the field of self-driving cars? Is there a sequence of courses that you could recommend? 2) What important concepts should this self-learner hone in on as they learn? 3) How can someone that does 1) (and has projects) break into the self-driving cars career?

olivercameron 8y ago
Hello! Great questions. 1) If you already have a good grasp of Python, I always advise to start with the AI for Robotics MOOC at Udacity, which is my favorite class of all time. Once that's done, I'd take a look at their Deep Learning classes and the Self-Driving Car Nanodegree. 2) I think it's crucial to get to grips with how the whole stack works, so I always advise to get to grips with a middleware like ROS. Also, don't be afraid to dabble in algorithms (think problems in motion planning, computer vision, etc.) 3) The traditional programs (think PhD programs) create a lot of specialists focused on a single domain, but the industry is in dire need of more generalists. An engineer who is able to dive into any part of the stack is a huge value-add!
- distorted_torus 8y ago
  Great answer, thank you! I will look into those courses and dig deep into the algorithms/stack.
  - olivercameron 8y ago
    Ping me when you're ready to start a job search in the space :) oliver@voyage.auto
    - distorted_torus 8y ago
      Will do! Thank you!
    - pkaye 8y ago
      Where is your engineering team located? I have a friend who might be interested.
      - olivercameron 8y ago
        We are based in Palo Alto, CA. We are also open to remote work for the right person! Please refer to oliver@voyage.auto.

stephengillie 8y ago

What are your thoughts on binocular cameras vs LIDAR for car vision? Will we ever get by on just 2 cameras?

olivercameron 8y ago
LIDAR all the way. High-resolution, long-range physics-accurate depth is so crucial. We will one day have a fully autonomous car with just a few cameras, but we may also have ultra-low cost high-performance LIDAR then.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

ma2rten 8y ago

How do you see the market for self-driving cars? How far is Waymo ahead of the competition? Who are the top competitors? How do you see your own position as a smaller startup?

fergie 8y ago

Hi Oliver It seems like the best self-driving systems are currently struggling with what seem to be fairly fundamental deficiencies (cant react to stationary objects on highways, dont react well to children and cyclists) Is this a valid observation? What do you see as the biggest limitations in the current generation of self-driving technology?