🚀 Pre-Visit Lesson

Before Betabox arrives at your school, get your students warmed up about Autonomous Vehicles and what STEM has to offer with these lessons.

1. Learn what machine learning is and how it relates to autonomous driving.
2. Consider or debate ethical issues about self-driving cars.
3. Explore careers in computer science and engineering.

“Autonomous” is derived from the Greek word autonomos where ‘auto’ means self and ‘nomos’ means to govern. Therefore, autonomous means self-governing. Autonomous technology is popping up all around us, from fancy self-driving cars to self-correcting vacuums. The video below will show you Google Waymo’s self-driving car experience.

So you might be wondering: how does it work? In order for us to trust a car to drive itself, we need to give a car the learning capabilities of a human! We do this by a process called machine learning. It is a form of artificial intelligence (AI) that teaches computers to learn and improve upon past experiences, just as humans do. 

Machine learning uses two techniques. One is called supervised learning, where it trains a model based on the known data we input so it can predict future outputs. There is also unsupervised learning, which finds hidden patterns or intrinsic structures in the input data so it can correct itself. 

Check out this free web-based Machine Learning App to test how it works! While you play, try to recognize at which point the computer is doing the supervised learning and the unsupervised learning.

Did the machine learn well? Why might it not have worked as well as you wanted it to? What can be done to improve the machine learning app?

Want to learn more about this topic? Click here to be taken to an extension of this activity. 

Would you want a fully self-driving car? Think of some pros and cons of self-driving car technology. Surely you can come up with multiple reasons for both sides. Regardless of whether you would want one of these vehicles personally, the future of transportation is changing quickly and we must be prepared to handle these changes by understanding the ethical implications of this new technology.

An ethical dilemma is a situation that has no easy right or wrong answer. It takes careful thought and consideration to come up with a decision we can all accept, so humans can keep innovating while staying safe and reducing harm.

Below are some hotly debated ethical questions about autonomous vehicles.

1. Will self-driving car technology be truly safe?
2. Will self-driving cars help or harm the environment?
3. If a car is about to crash into a tree, but has the option to save the driver by swerving into a child on the sidewalk, what should the car do? Should the car be able to decide? 

The full version of our Ethics of Self-Driving Cars lesson can be found by clicking here for students, and here for teachers.

What types of careers are involved in the world of autonomous vehicle technology? Below is a short description of just a few of the many important jobs in this industry. By the way, they are all rapidly growing!

• Software Developers design and develop computer programs and applications. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary in 2021 was $120,730.
• Chemists & Material Scientists study substances in the molecular level and analyze chemical interactions to develop new technologies, like finding new chemicals to use in electric car batteries to make them work better. The median salary in 2021 for chemists was $79,430 and $100,090 for material scientists.
• Mechanical drafters prepare detailed drawings that show how to assemble machinery and mechanical devices. Salary: $62,650.
• Mechanical engineers design, develop, and test the tools, engines, machines, and other mechanical devices. Salary: $95,300.
• Electrical engineers design, develop, test, and supervise the manufacture of electrical components. Salary: $101,780.
• Commercial and industrial designers are responsible for the style, function, quality, and safety of vehicles. Salary: $77,030. 
  

Let’s find your specific interests! Use this tool to discover STEM careers based on activities you prefer. You might be surprised by what careers await you.