Lyft and Udacity introduce “nanodegree” in self-driving cars

Lyft and online teaching startup Udacity is jointly launching a new program to hand out degrees on self driving cars to interested developers. Starting today, anybody with an internet can sign up and register for a new “Intro to Self-Driving Cars” course. It is a four month course that costs $800 to enroll, but Lyft, playing the good Samaritan, is handing out 400 scholarships specifically targeted at students from communities underrepresented in the tech world.

The nanodegree which was originally started a year ago has had more than 43,000 applications with more than 10,000 students enrolling from 50 countries, according to Udacity. “There is an enormous market for engineers of self-driving cars. Lots and lots of companies that you wouldn’t suspect have entered that field and are massively hiring,” Thrun says in a video marketing Udacity’s nanodegree program.

Of course, not everybody with an internet connection can enroll to the program, it has a few prerequisites, but they are pretty simple. The students interested in the intro class should have some programming experience (e.g. C++, Python) and algebra. Graduate of this course can automatically enroll in Udacity's year-old Self-Driving Car or Robotics Nanodegree programs, which is more focused on providing students with the skills necessary to land a job in the fast-growing autonomous vehicle market.