Given how important self-driving vehicles are, on so many fronts, I think it's fantastic that a company with resources is pushing forward an OSS implementation. Safety alone is reason enough for there to be a good OSS reference implementation. I'm surprised/disappointed that government hasn't been more instrumental in pushing forward an agenda of promoting self-driving cars (while expending resources on other types of work that will be far less effective long-term).

So, this is super cool. I'm surprised it's Udacity doing it; on a couple of fronts:

It seems, on the surface, outside of their core competency...but thinking about it, it does make some sense, if they really have enough paying students (and maybe sponsoring organizations) to make it work. I mean, schools that teach auto repair don't work on fake cars. Why would a school teaching self-driving limit themselves to simulated cars?

But, it's also surprising that Udacity has the funds to make it work. The cost of building self-driving car technology must have come way down just in the past few years. And/or Udacity must be making a lot more money than I would have guessed based on how crowded their market is.

Regardless, it's super cool!