It’s good to be a software engineer with some expertise in the autonomous vehicle when the talk about autonomous vehicles is pretty much hot air. Investment in driverless vehicle research has reached record levels in the past year and along with comes the need to create millions of jobs. In the coming years, one will see a sharp growth in job opportunities in the sector. Hardware and software engineers looking to work on autonomous vehicle technologies have lots of choices, claims a report citing Indeed.com. Currently, the job site lists over 500 openings at Silicon Valley companies alone and over2,000 openings overall.
So, if you are a software engineer, developer or a roboticist, now is the time to dive into the pool of opportunities that the autonomous vehicles sector will create. After scouting through various job portals such as Indeed, Naukri, SimplyHired, and others, we have listed the areas which will create more opportunities:
Autonomous Vehicle Simulation Engineer
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The primary job of the simulation engineer will be to contribute to the development of a fully-automated driving system by building models and simulation tools and documenting the behavior of the vehicles. The engineers will develop and implement safety-critical functions related to fault handling, system redundancy. To apply for this post, you should have a BS/MS/ Ph.D. degree in computer science, electrical engineering. And have software development skills in C++ and Python.
Companies Hiring: NVIDIA, Toyota Research Institute, SF Motors, Aptiv
Machine Learning Engineer for Maps
The driverless cars will require high-definition maps that will differ from the maps we use today. The AI maps will give live updates in second by second with information about accidents, traffic backups, and lane closure. For that, the professional will be required to design machine learning algorithms that ingest telemetry data for geospatial modeling that are used in autonomous driving. The engineers will also have to develop state-of-the-art mapping algorithms for backend processing, optimized applications in embedded systems. The professional must have a solid experience in machine learning, signal processing in mapping space. The engineer must be proficient in Python and have experience with data analysis libraries such as pandas, numpy, scipy and scikit-learn.
Companies Hiring: Tesla, Daimler, NVIDIA
ADAS/Autopilot Software Engineer
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The foremost priority for any autonomous vehicle is its security. And hackers are the real obstacles for an autonomous car. Though there are no reports of a hacker hacking any self-driving vehicles the threat is of high gravity. The professional needs to evaluate vehicle strategies and trajectories and automate safe control of the vehicle. The engineer must have a strong C/C++ coding experience in Linux platform.
Companies Hiring: Tesla, Dura Auto, Karma Automotive, Faraday Future
Visual Perception Engineer
Cameras will be the eye of autonomous vehicles, it will have the ability to read signs and see colors and will also allow vehicles to navigate roads without drivers input and also give a 360 view of the surroundings. The visual perception engineer will be required to develop accurate computer vision algorithms and advanced systems with a focus on real-time object tracking, SLAM, sensor fusion, visual odometry, camera/Lidar/radar calibration and 3D reconstruction. The professional will also be required to train machine learning models on a computing cluster to perform visual recognition tasks.
Companies Hiring: SF Motors, Aptiv
Deep Learning Software Engineer
Deep learning is machine learning algorithm that leverages the data that comes from the camera system mounted in an autonomous car. Deep learning is used in self-driving cars to process sensory data and make an informed decision. The software engineer will be required to design, train and deploy neural networks for complex computer vision problems.
Companies Hiring: Volkswagen Group of America, Renesas
Though most job posts fell under the broad category of a software engineer, as far as the skill set required by the autonomous industry are proficiency in programming languages C++, Python, computer simulation and robotics.
Scenario In India
India’s tech-startups like Tonbo Imaging and Hi-Tech Robotic along with auto giants Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Motors are at full throttle on autonomous vehicles. Despite that, it will not become mainstream in India anytime soon, not by 2025 at least. Chances, the Indian government will not allow driverless cars to ply on its road even before they become fully operational. Last year, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said that government would rather protect the jobs of millions of drivers than see a technological marvel on the streets. He said the driverless technology would render millions of Indian drivers jobless.
