Also called: Self-Driving Car Engineer, AV Software Engineer
Builds the software and sensors that let cars and trucks drive themselves safely.
You review a video clip where your robotaxi braked hard for a plastic bag blowing across the road. You dig into what the cameras and lidar saw, change how the car predicts objects, and test the fix in millions of simulated miles before it goes back on real streets.
Pay at big AV companies often includes large stock grants.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. Bachelor's in computer science, electrical or mechanical engineering; master's or PhD common.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $60k – $150k.
Majors to look at: Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics Engineering.
Growing faster than average. Not tracked separately by BLS; hiring swings with industry funding.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI writes more of the driving software and end-to-end models replace hand-coded parts; safety validation and road testing stay human.
Classes: AP Computer Science, AP Calculus, AP Physics, AP Statistics.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2199.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.