

Sebastian Thrun wants to teach you how to program a self-driving robotic car - eguizzo
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/artificial-intelligence/sebastian-thrun-will-teach-you-how-to-build-your-own-self-driving-car-for-free

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mistercow
I have a lot of respect for Thrun, but the online AI class was such an
unmitigated disaster. I feel like he and Norvig really needed to work with
someone experienced with organizing and producing that kind of project rather
than just trying to wing it themselves. Maybe it was just a rough first
attempt, but I would be extremely reluctant to take part in another one of his
online teaching efforts, or to recommend them to others interested in
learning.

~~~
nimrody
Having successfully completed the AI class -- I have mixed feelings about, but
definitely wouldn't call it a disaster. I enjoyed the experience and learned
quite a bit.

For me, the main problem was the course was trying to attract audience without
any common background. So lectures ended up very superficial unless the
subject is very self contained.

For example, Novig gave a few _very_ nice lectures introducing game theory and
various search based solutions. But then they jump to a very superficial
description of particle filters.

On the one hand, they dedicate time to explaining Bayes theorem (something
that is taught in any basic probability class), and on the other hand, they
describe advanced topics like particle filters and, perhaps, Markov Decision
Processes very briefly.

Hopefully, Udacity will have, in the future, courses that build one on
another. So students will have more uniform background and the instructors
will have something to rely on.

Good luck, Professor Thurn!

~~~
Tichy
I suspect that Bayes reasoning is much more complicated than particle filters.
The particle filters seemed to be a simple but powerful concept.

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MaxGabriel
A clarification, the homework is NOT due later today. The FAQ said homework
was given on Monday and due on Wednesday, but it meant next Wednesday[1]. The
homework hasn't been released yet[2].

[1][http://www.udacity-
forums.com/cs373/questions/276/homework-d...](http://www.udacity-
forums.com/cs373/questions/276/homework-deadlines) [2] [http://www.udacity-
forums.com/cs373/questions/129/has-the-ho...](http://www.udacity-
forums.com/cs373/questions/129/has-the-homework-been-posted-yet)

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mtrn
The strong statement from the mentioned robot.cc:

>I am against education that is only available to the top 1% of all students.
I am against tens of thousands of dollars of tuition expenses. I am against
the imbalance that the present system brings to the world. I want to empower
the 99%. I want to democratize education. Education should be free. Accessible
for all, everywhere, and any time.

When this becomes a bit bigger and mainstream, a lot of people will be
interested in that space and will be ready (and happy) to pay for it, I guess.
And this need not necessarily be the students: revenue could come from course
sponsors (like course champions at OCW, <http://ocw.mit.edu/donate/ocw-course-
champions-program>) or institutions who build own offers around and based on
certain courses.

~~~
jakubw
In an interview, David Evans, who teaches the search engine class, said
Udacity's business model will be recruiters paying for access to the top
students.

~~~
mhurron
Can you find that interview? I've been wondering how Udacity and Coursera
planned to stay in business.

~~~
jakubw
Here it is: [http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/frontier-digital-
education-1...](http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/frontier-digital-
education-15539244)

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robobenjie
Does anyone know how to pronounce the name? I see ooh-duh-CITY, but I presume
that they were trying for you-DAH-city or maybe OOH-dah-city...? (like
University + Audacity).

Regardless they picked a hard one to figure out.

~~~
electrichead
I think it is probably you-DAH-city

~~~
DanBC
I love ASCII-IPA. But I'm hopeless at remembering the pronunciation.

It'd be great to have a simple thing for pronunciation; maybe a plug-in that
lets me highlight and right click ascii ipa or even unicode ipa.

(<http://alt-usage-english.org/ipa/ascii_ipa_combined.shtml>)

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tedsuo
Bummer I signed up a while ago but never received an email that classes were
starting.

~~~
jfoutz
Just yesterday. go watch the videos now. I imagine the next lecture will be
out on tuesday.

