Teaching Autonomous Vehicles at the Graduate Level: Challenges and Efficient Offering.

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are a technological reality with level 2 AVs already on the market for a few years now and level 3 AVs being introduced to the U.S market by Mercedes Benz in 2023. This topic has been strongly present in research efforts. Development of incremental efforts in image recognition, path planning, object detection and response, and control algorithms for AVs represent a vibrant research area. However, on the educational front, teaching Autonomous vehicle technology to students on a large scale has been slow in its adoption. This is due to challenges related to the rapidly moving technology as the standards for AVs are yet to settle. In addition, the interdisciplinary nature of working in the automotive industry posed a challenge on the direction of such degrees at the graduate level. Student backgrounds and previously achieved skills and learning outcomes can come from a wide array of majors. In this work, we strive to tackle these challenges by drawing a clear road map for programs aiming to offer AV graduate studies to multidisciplinary students while being aware of cost. Clear learning outcomes that enable students to achieve success in the field of AVs along with assessment methods are introduced. Technical tools that highly depend on open-source licensing are proposed to form a viable educational solution to the discussed challenges.