Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Self Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 49 posts

Re: Ask HN: Self Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree

#31

Post by dragonwriter »

yid wrote: post #29

May I ask why this is a "nanodegree"? Is having this qualification likely to improve someone's chances of getting a self-driving engineering position in industry?

EdX Nanodegrees are linked to, and provide specified credits toward, Master's (or maybe other, but I think usually master's) degree programs from the institution partnering with EdX to offer the nanodegree. (It is, I think, intended that they should generally be useful, from a career sense, independently, but the link to a degree program is the defining characteristic.)

Re: Ask HN: Self Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree

#32

Post by dhruvp »

seanxh wrote: post #12
dhruvp wrote: post #6

Hi all, My name is Dhruv (dhruv@udacity.com) and I lead the Self-Driving Car Nanodegree program here at Udacity. I'm happy to answer questions directly on this note (email me!). I think this program will be very different from our existing Nanodegrees as we have real industry partners who are extremely invested in making sure the program is high quality from the get go. This is because they want to be able to increas…

Hi Dhruv, I got an email said the course start at the end of Nov, but when register I remember the post said it start around Oct, can you please clarify that? Thanks

Hi Sean,

We had way more demand than we expected so while you may have applied for October, we were only able to get you a spot for November. We're doing this to make sure that you have all the support you need in the program. If we tried to take everyone in the October batch we wouldn't have been able to deliver the quality we wanted as our human support services are not quite ready for that scale yet but will be ready by November. Hope that answers the question!

Re: Ask HN: Self Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree

#33

Post by dhruvp »

rerock wrote: post #13
seanxh wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi Dhruv, I got an email said the course start at the end of Nov, but when register I remember the post said it start around Oct, can you please clarify that? Thanks

For mine, it says December 12.. I guess they have different terms? Dhruv, could you confirm?

Hey rerock,

That's exactly right. We have terms opening on different months so that you have a community of students you do the program with.

Re: Ask HN: Self Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree

#34

Post by dhruvp »

wburgo9 wrote: post #17
dhruvp wrote: post #6

Hi all, My name is Dhruv (dhruv@udacity.com) and I lead the Self-Driving Car Nanodegree program here at Udacity. I'm happy to answer questions directly on this note (email me!). I think this program will be very different from our existing Nanodegrees as we have real industry partners who are extremely invested in making sure the program is high quality from the get go. This is because they want to be able to increas…

Hi Dhruv, What percentage of students who complete the program would you expect to be able to get a job as a Self-Driving car engineer?

Hi wburgo,

It's hard for me to give a number for a few reasons:

1. Not everyone applying actually wants a job. A lot of people are taking this program just out of curiosity and interest. 2. It really depends on where you live. People in the Bay Area, Germany, and the Michigan area are going to be closer to employment opportunities than other.

That being said, we are optimizing the entire program to be such that the projects you create are things that employers want. And we've verified this by building the program with employers from the beginning.

Re: Ask HN: Self Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree

#35

Post by dhruvp »

zump wrote: post #30

Can anyone who works for a top SDC company (comma.ai, Zoox, Cruise, Uber/Otto, Tesla) comment whether they would consider an application from someone with a technical qualification plus this "nanodegree"? Throwaways acceptable, looking for a pragmatic insight from an industry insider. There is a lot of PR speak clouding my judgement.

Hey,

Again this is a totally valid question. I can confirm that Otto will indeed consider someone from this program as we are working with their VP of Engineering, Drew Gray, to actually create this program.

Re: Ask HN: Self Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree

#36

Post by cscurmudgeon »

dhruvp wrote: post #10
mmanulis wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will you make the learning material available for those not taking the course?

In the foreseeable future we will not. However, our hope is to do that eventually (probably at least half a year away) as we do with all our content.

So, (honest question, as I have been accepted) other than the certification, what do those who take part gain?

Re: Ask HN: Self Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree

#37

Post by Namrog84 »

logfromblammo wrote: post #22

By my calculations [0], one nanodegree is equivalent to approximately 0.0007 seconds of classroom instruction. If you're going to create a self-driving car, please, please, please get at least a millidegree (~2 hours). [0] ~120 credit-hours per B.S. degree * ~16 classroom hours per credit-hour * 360 seconds per hour * 10^-9 for nano- prefix

I'm assuming your being hyperbolic or sarcastic. I don't think it's intended to mean literally a Nanos worth of a degree. More attune to just buzzword for a certificate or completed coursework.

The word "Certificate" comes with a lot of preconceived thoughts. I think they are trying to break away from with a new name

Re: Ask HN: Self Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree

#39

Post by seanxh »

dhruvp wrote: post #32
seanxh wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi Dhruv, I got an email said the course start at the end of Nov, but when register I remember the post said it start around Oct, can you please clarify that? Thanks

Hi Sean, We had way more demand than we expected so while you may have applied for October, we were only able to get you a spot for November. We're doing this to make sure that you have all the support you need in the program. If we tried to take everyone in the October batch we wouldn't have been able to deliver the quality we wanted as our human support services are not quite ready for that scale yet but will be re…

Hi Dhruv,thanks for taking time and answer my question, I weren't keep track the application, so I didn't realize the changes. One more question, so is this nanodegree also has the same guarantees that helping someone to land on a related job within 6 months after graduated?
Post reply on HN