Seems like creating free and open source simulator would be of more value than trying to get students to build hardware based vehicles?
DARPA, YC, and other have taken this approach for various reasons in some projects - and it seems if the intent is to teach, learn, share, etc. - it'd be a better investment.
How so? We have students all around the world (almost every country is represented in our DAU) who will never have access to a car outfitted with hardware and sensors (easy $125k), never mind the costs needed to get a permit to get on the road ($50k!). Being able to contribute code and see the results run in real environments (ask Sebastian what he thinks about simulation!) could be a huge advantage to students around the world in their quest to jump into this industry and get credibility.
Speaking of credibility, we want to prove to the world we really know what we're doing, and that our curriculum is truly legit.
tl;dr: We hope that by open sourcing our car that we can give opportunities to students around the world who otherwise wouldn't have it.
Thanks, appreciate you addressing the questions.
If you wanted to ping Sebastian and let him know about the AMA, I'm sure there would be a lot of interest beyond just me getting an answer to my questions from him; I truly am curious to hear his take, since as you say, the barrier to rendering the software in hardware would likely be beyond the reach of an individual student or even likely a group of students in closes proximity to each other.
I did simulations before doing anything in practice. Benefits were many because there is nothing like the real thing.
Edit: Removed presumptuous comment about myself