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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteYes—but the headline needs a qualification. Udacity’s historical Programming a Robotic Car course, taught by Sebastian Thrun, offered free instruction in the programming methods used in robotic cars. It did not provide a car or promise that students would build a road-legal autonomous vehicle. Whether the original class is still available for free is not established by the available historical sources.
What was Sebastian Thrun’s course?
Programming a Robotic Car was a seven-week online Udacity course associated with Thrun. IEEE Spectrum described it as a free course, and its announcement framed the offer as learning to program an autonomous vehicle “at no cost (robotic car not included).” The course was about software and the systems behind a robotic car—not a supplied vehicle or a complete physical car-building project. IEEE Spectrum’s announcement describes the original offer.
The course description reproduced there asked, “Can I really learn how to build a self-driving car in 7 weeks?” Its answer was that students would learn the basics of the primary systems involved in programming a robotic car. Read “build” in that instructional sense: learning how to program those systems, rather than assembling and certifying a car for public roads.
What did students study?
The historical course description points to core robotics and artificial-intelligence methods, including probabilistic inference, planning and search, localization, tracking, image processing, and control. Udacity’s historical CS373 listing names specific techniques:
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- Monte Carlo localization and particle-filter localization
- Kalman-filter tracking
- A* planning and search
- PID control
The announcement also describes lectures, homework, quizzes, and a final exam. Taken together, these details show a course focused on the computational foundations of robotic-car programming, not a hands-on vehicle construction curriculum. Udacity’s historical CS373 listing identifies the course and its listed topics.
What preparation did the course expect?
The announcement advised students to know some Python or feel confident learning the amount needed. Probability and linear algebra were described as helpful, not required. These are expectations stated for the historical class; they should not be treated as prerequisites for a current Udacity course.
Is the original course still free and available?
The sources establish that the course was offered historically and described as free, but they do not establish that it can still be accessed or enrolled in today. The historical listing is not enough to confirm current availability or terms, so there is no verified signup route or current price to give.
How does it differ from Udacity’s later self-driving-car curriculum?
Udacity later described a separate Self-Driving Car Engineer curriculum with applied work such as camera-based lane detection and sensor fusion involving camera, radar, lidar, and GPS. That later curriculum is distinct from Thrun’s CS373 class; its archived material illustrates a broader project-oriented scope, but does not establish current enrollment availability or price. Udacity’s archived Self-Driving Car Engineer curriculum is useful for that distinction.
What if you want to work with a physical car?
The historic course did not include a car, and the sources do not identify or endorse a particular kit. A programmable robotics car kit could be an optional way to explore the subject physically, but it was not a course requirement or benefit. Check a kit’s software, sensors, compute hardware, and compatibility independently before buying; the historical course materials do not establish which current products will work with its lessons.
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