
Udacity spins out its self-driving car business as Voyage - FLGMwt
https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/05/udacity-spin-out-voyage-aims-to-build-a-full-self-driving-taxi-business/
======
olivercameron
Hello all! CEO of Voyage and former YC founder here. Would love to answer any
questions I can about autonomous taxis. I'm obviously very passionate about
the area. It feels like dev time is only accelerating (vs. linear
progression), so I believe we'll see self-driving cars much faster than the
skeptics think.

We're also hiring. I don't care about your credential, just that you love
robotics or machine learning. Ping me! jobs@voyage.auto.

~~~
ThisIsUnfair
So you guys literally milked ideas and and code in the guise of teaching the
students only to spin up another business. I loved the whole MOOC idea until
it was ambushed and hijacked by people running all manner of fluffy positions.

The whole system is now bent on profiteering with marketing staff fabricating
fancy outcomes and guarantees to lure people to sign up for the paid version
of the course.

Especially Udacity and Coursera. Edx not so much even though their programs
are more rigorous!

~~~
Everhusk
> So you guys literally milked ideas and and code in the guise of teaching the
> students only to spin up another business. I loved the whole MOOC idea until
> it was ambushed and hijacked by people running all manner of fluffy
> positions.

As someone enrolled in the course, I don't think this is a very fair
judgement. The TAs genuiunely seem there to help. I'm actually happy that
Oliver decided to do this and wouldn't mind if more did it, more employment
opportunities!

> The whole system is now bent on profiteering with marketing staff
> fabricating fancy outcomes and guarantees to lure people to sign up for the
> paid version of the course.

Oh, you mean like traditional universities? $2400 doesn't look so bad when you
compare it to grad school somewhere that would teach this stuff.

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faitswulff
I'm sorry, Udacity the MOOC company has a self-driving car business?

...news to me.

~~~
imrehg
Surprising indeed, but not entirely. Udacity co-founder Sebastian Thrun
competed in the DARPA Grand Challenge, and led the development of Google's
self-driving car.

~~~
FullMtlAlcoholc
Thrun is also a luminary in the field of AI and the head of Carnegie Mellon's
CS dept

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uncle_stupid
I think this is really exciting news Oliver.

Will there be an employment link up between Voyager and the self-driving car
nanodegree? And do you think it's likely that other spin offs will occur from
Udacity related to other courses?

I work in higher education and I'm incredibly grateful for how Udacity are
opening the eyes of my more traditional colleagues as to how learning can be
different, relevant and exciting.

Thanks and Good luck.

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noway421
Should we be expecting some autonomous efforts from Snap Inc. at last in the
near future?

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arthuretf
Congratulations with the company, Oliver! I wish an infinite success! (:

Is Voyage willing to sponsor visas for future employees? Are there junior
positions available for new grads?

Thank you!

~~~
olivercameron
Yes! Definitely willing to sponsor. I wouldn't be in the US unless Udacity was
willing to do so.

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kqr2
Google cache in case page is down:

[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:z7UZzB...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:z7UZzBDGLqMJ:https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/05/udacity-
spin-out-voyage-aims-to-build-a-full-self-driving-taxi-
business/+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

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Analemma_
Heh, good timing: I hear Uber might need to start their self-driving car
project from square one soon. They might be willing to do a fast deal.

~~~
masters3d
Udacity's founder also helped google's self driving car project so I don't
think Uber would make the same mistake.

~~~
goodJobWalrus
Just for the record, Udacity founder has said that he won't have anything to
do with this company (per BI article)

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wiradikusuma
companies pay huge money to hire self-driving car engineers, or to train them
to become one.

that's old skool.

Udacity provides nanodegree program to train you at your cost, $2,400 for the
full program (9mo)! at least now you know you might get hired!

/s

EDIT: link
[https://www.udacity.com/drive/faq](https://www.udacity.com/drive/faq)

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mojoe
I'm currently enrolled in Udacity's self-driving car nanodegree, I can
certainly say that the program thus far has been very fun and good at
conveying knowledge. They've developed a curriculum that has a great cadence
that keeps you moving forward, and the content is super interesting.

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ingenieroariel
Congratulations to the team involved! In particular Oliver, Eric and Mac.

As a CarND student who enrolled because of the Open Source aspect I'd love to
know if Voyage is planning to contribute open source software like Comma.ai
and Polysync.

~~~
olivercameron
Thanks Ariel! We will definitely be contributing open source. It may not be a
total open source self-driving car, but we will be very active.

~~~
ingenieroariel
Awesome!

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khrm
Does Udacity have any plan to expand outside USA and in other ventures? Like
Bangalore maybe? I am an AIND student.

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lquist
Can the billions being invested in this space earn an economic profit? It
seems to me that multiple companies will be able to bring this technology to
market in roughly the same timespan and that number will increase rapidly with
time, driving commodification.

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elastic_church
Reminds me of the time when failing mattress companies had a dail-up ISP
vertical.

