Working in the self driving space

New ghypbd
Sep 17, 2018 15 Comments

How is it working in the self driving cars space? How different would one's experience as a software engineer be vs working at more traditional companies like Google, fb etc (in terms of engineering problems not company size etc).

Also, I'm curious as to what insiders think of the landscape in terms of companies that are doing good work vs companies that are far behind/posturing. Point of the question: where should I consider working.
A few companies I know of:
Lyft, Uber, Tesla, waymo, cruise, zoox, drive.ai, nio

Personal opinion: I'm biased in favor of Lyft, waymo, and cruise. Dislike Tesla for the culture. Don't know enough about the rest.

Update: I work as a backend software engineer. Think platform, api etc.

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 TOP 15 Comments
  • Google oyNF33
    I've personally had a lot more fulfillment working at Cruise since leaving Google. I was also on a backend team before and am working on an AV eng team here.
    Sep 17, 2018 7
    • Cruise Automation Cloudily
      You are at Cruise now? Nice 😀
      Sep 17, 2018
    • Cruise Automation Cloudily
      Which area you are working on ? I am on planning 👉
      Sep 17, 2018
    • Vertivco / Eng
      Fast Papua

      Vertivco Eng

      PRE
      YouTube, American Bureau of Shipping, Facebook
       Fast Papuamore
      Which languages are used? C++ and OpenCV?
      Sep 17, 2018
    • Cruise Automation Cloudily
      If you don’t work on computer vision, it’s mostly just C++, no openCV deep learning.
      Sep 17, 2018
    • Cruise Automation Cloudily
      Discretion: working on self driving car, you have to be very motivated as you will need to deal all edge cases before you roll out the product, which may be a little frustrating as I have heard from a few of my coworkers.
      Sep 17, 2018
    • Google bcUU45
      I'm considering leaving google for a cruise offer. What are major benefits you find between the two?
      Sep 18, 2018
    • Google / Eng ae521
      Did any of the Google --> Cruise people consider Waymo. If so, what tipped the scale?
      Nov 10, 2018
  • Aurora life-rolls
    Research Aurora, before you leap.
    Sep 17, 2018 2
    • Amazon Yukon
      How is Aurora?
      Sep 17, 2018
    • Aurora life-rolls
      I am biased. I think it’s humbling. Roughly, 1/3 from Google, 1/3 from Tesla, and a 1/3 from Uber ATG.
      Sep 17, 2018
  • Cruise Automation Cloudily
    What is your current role? Self driving car has wide range of domain to work on, especially like the ones targeting for commercialization.
    Sep 17, 2018 1
    • New ghypbd
      OP
      Updated description
      Sep 17, 2018
  • Tesla / Eng
    embedder

    Tesla Eng

    BIO
    Interested in all things embedded systems
     embeddermore
    Argo AI is another one - they’re funded by Ford to spearhead their self-driving tech.
    Sep 17, 2018 0
  • Citibank / R&D whatdabump
    Saved
    Sep 17, 2018 0