Robotics requires both and neglecting either one will give you bad results, if you even get results. Issues in hardware can be solved in software to some degre

Robotics requires both and neglecting either one will give you bad results, if you even get results. Issues in hardware can be solved in software to some degree and vice versa some things that can be hard to do in software can be solved with better hardware. You can certainly get started on robot software when you have some ready-made hardware. You will not learn how to build your own robot from scratch by skipping that part, obviously. You will likely not make a successful robot business case with just buying hardware off the shelf without understanding it well. The various self-driving car teams are all building their cars themselves, not now and not in the days of the DARPA Grand Challenge.