Udacity Intros Flying Car Nanodegree

Udacity Intros Flying Car Nanodegree

George Jetson, watch out! MOOC pioneer Udacity will be introducing a nanodegree on flying cars in early 2018. Students will gain an understanding of the "latest in flying car technology" as well as drones. Lessons will train participants in smart transportation, including the software skills needed for building autonomous flight systems. Company founder Sebastian Thrun will participate in the program, as well as one of Amazon's robotics experts and others from aeronautics and aerospace.

Projects included in the two-term program will start with the basics of "mission and path planning, state estimation, control and perception," according to a preview paper. From there, students will gain skills for flying quadrotors and fixed-wing drones autonomously in a flight simulator provided through the course, then advance to learning how these vehicles can be controlled as they complete "complex missions in urban environments."

Thrun's latest passion is Kitty Hawk, a company he founded to create "Flyer," an ultralight aircraft that can take off and land vertically and has the capacity to stay airborne for 20 minutes and a range of about 50 miles, according to a flash video available on Kitty Hawk's home page. Pilots won't require a license. The vehicle is intended to be flown over "freshwater in uncongested areas."

Other instructors are Angela Schoellig, a professor at the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies; Nicholas Roy, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and the founder of Project Wing, a project to develop delivery drones; and Raffaello D'Andrea, co-founder of Kiva Systems, which was acquired by Amazon and turned into that company's robotics division.

The cost of the new program hasn't been announced. Many individual courses in Udacity are free. But there's usually a cost for complete nanodegree programs, which are intended to bolster people's skillsets in specific topics. For example, the new "Intro to Self-Driving Cars" is $800.

A "Plus" version of the nanodegree promises a successful graduate of the program that he or she will get hired within six months of graduating or receive a refund of the tuition paid. The Plus program covers three fields currently: machine learning, web development and iOS development. The company hasn't specified whether the flying car program will be part of its Plus option.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • two large brackets facing each other with various arrows, circles, and rectangles flowing between them

    1EdTech Partners with DXtera to Support Ed Tech Interoperability

    1EdTech Consortium and DXtera Institute have announced a partnership aimed at improving access to learning data in postsecondary and higher education.

  • Abstract geometric shapes including hexagons, circles, and triangles in blue, silver, and white

    Google Launches Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet

    Google has introduced Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, a new artificial intelligence model designed to reason through problems before delivering answers, a shift that marks a major leap in AI capability, according to the company.

  •  laptop on a clean desk with digital padlock icon on the screen

    Study: Data Privacy a Top Concern as Orgs Scale Up AI Agents

    As organizations race to integrate AI agents into their cloud operations and business workflows, they face a crucial reality: while enthusiasm is high, major adoption barriers remain, according to a new Cloudera report. Chief among them is the challenge of safeguarding sensitive data.

  • stylized AI code and a neural network symbol, paired with glitching code and a red warning triangle

    New Anthropic AI Models Demonstrate Coding Prowess, Behavior Risks

    Anthropic has released Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, its most advanced artificial intelligence models to date, boasting a significant leap in autonomous coding capabilities while simultaneously revealing troubling tendencies toward self-preservation that include attempted blackmail.