18-744 Autonomous Driving

12 units, Carnegie Mellon University

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) promise to (a) significantly reduce or even eliminate fatalities, injuries and damage from automotive crashes; (b) replace driving times with other productive work; and (c) provide independence, flexibility and a better quality of life to legally-blind and differently-abled individuals by giving them transportation options. At the same time, driving is one of the most complex tasks performed by humans on a regular basis. Put together, autonomous driving has become a deep engineering and technological challenge of our times. This course will expose students to the software architecture used in autonomous vehicles (AVs), and discuss in-depth each of the many layers underlying AVs. These layers include sensing, perception, localization, driving behaviors, route planning, path planning, vehicular communications, control, fault management and user interfaces.

Prerequisites: none listed

Offered: Spring 2027, Spring 2026

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