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Sebastian Thrun’s “Programming a Robotic Car” was a real, historically advertised Udacity course described as a free, seven-week introduction to programming systems used in robotic cars. It taught software methods—not how to assemble a complete road-ready self-driving vehicle—and the car itself was not included. The available historical sources do not establish whether the course is accessible or free today.
What was Sebastian Thrun’s robotic-car course?
“Programming a Robotic Car,” also identified in a historical Udacity listing as CS373, was associated with Sebastian Thrun and presented as a seven-week online course. IEEE Spectrum’s 2012 announcement described it as free and framed its aim as introducing learners to the primary systems involved in programming a robotic car.
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The course was about learning how parts of a robotic-car system work in software. The announcement’s phrase “robotic car not included” is important: it did not promise a supplied vehicle, a finished autonomous-car build, or a road-legal car at the end.
What did the course cover?
The historical course description and listing point to core ideas in robotics and artificial intelligence, including probability, image processing, planning, localization, tracking, and control. The Udacity listing specifically names these methods:
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- Monte Carlo localization: estimating a robot’s position by representing uncertainty across possible locations.
- Kalman filter tracking: estimating a moving object’s state from uncertain measurements over time.
- Particle-filter localization: maintaining and updating a set of possible position estimates.
- A* planning and search: finding a route through a search space using a cost-informed search strategy.
- PID control: adjusting a system’s behavior using proportional, integral, and derivative feedback.
The announcement also described lectures, homework, quizzes, and a final exam. These details indicate a structured instructional course; they do not establish that students built or tested a full vehicle as a course project.
Would it teach you to build your own self-driving car?
That depends on what “build” means. If you mean learning programming concepts used in robotic-car systems, the course was advertised to teach the basics of those systems. If you mean physically assembling a vehicle, integrating its sensors and compute hardware, and producing an autonomous car suitable for public roads, the historical description does not support that promise.
IEEE Spectrum reproduced the course FAQ asking, “Can I really learn how to build a self-driving car in 7 weeks?” Its answer was that students would learn “the basics of all the primary systems involved in programming a robotic car.” Read in context, this is a claim about learning programming fundamentals, not a guarantee of a completed car. The announcement explicitly said the car was not included.
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The historical announcement said students should know some Python or feel confident they could learn the amount needed. It described probability and linear algebra as helpful, not required. Those are expectations stated for this historical class; they should not be treated as prerequisites for a current Udacity course.
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Is the course still free or available?
The cited announcement and historical Udacity listing establish that the course existed and was promoted as free at the time. They do not establish its current enrollment status, present-day accessibility, or whether it remains free. Consequently, there is no verified current signup route or price to rely on here.
How does it differ from later self-driving-car coursework?
A later Udacity Self-Driving Car Engineer curriculum is a separate program, not another name for CS373. Its archived material includes applied work such as camera-based lane detection and sensor fusion involving camera, radar, lidar, and GPS. That broader project-oriented scope illustrates how later autonomous-car curricula could extend beyond an introductory programming course; the archive does not prove that the later program is currently open for enrollment.
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Can you learn with a physical robotics car?
A programmable robotics car kit could be an optional way to experiment with some concepts using hardware, but the historical course did not include or require a particular kit. The cited sources do not endorse a model or establish which present-day kits are compatible with any course materials. Treat hardware as a separate choice, not part of the original offer.
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