I RACED My Self-Driving RC Car

Hey everyone, I'm excited to finally share this video with you all! I actually finished filming this video back in May, but the editing ended up taking sooo long (like ~150 hours spread over 2 months). I had so much footage to go through, but I hope the end result made it all worth it. If you want to build your own self-driving RC, you can check out some of the links I put in the video description. Until next time 👀

A high gloss basketball court was a cruel choice of venue for this competition. Great job, Steven!

I gotta say, I'm a 31 year old software engineer who also does robotics as a hobby, and you are absolutely killing it. I hate to sound like an old man, but being this far into the field when you're so young is amazing. Keep kicking ass, your videos make me excited to get back to work on my own machines!

Doing this solo is f-ing nuts. To me this is far from failure. From one engineer to another, you did really well!

Dont be discouraged Steven, you did your best effort and you were all alone in it. The track was pretty janky but one may argue that the algs should be smart enough to update the map on the fly. I think what could have made a difference is to practice on a map similar to the competition map since it was much narrower and might require some tuning to get working right, as well as corner cases like reversing once you have realized you are stuck. The tire grip also played a huge part and I think sticky tires would have helped. WD-40 degrades tire rubber to make it pretty sticky. But regardless, great effort and great content, thank you for sharing.

easy-to-move track boders seems like a massive oversight for something like this

Man, i'm surprised at how uncontrolled the environment was when I first saw it. Its insane what you achieved with your resource and time constraints as a solo.

4:54 The easiest way to adjust the gears is to put a slice of regular paper in between them and then tighten them.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching and getting to be part of this journey! And although you did not win you still gained a ton of experience, knowledge and "rivals". Maybe a shorter wheelbase would have helped with the car's turn radius, and if their barriers were semi-permanent the localization could potentially have worked more reliable, but hindsight is always 20/20. Again watching your journey has been fun and today's video has not been disappointing xD

You did excellent! You were right on pace with the other drivers, and this was your first shot. On top of that your video editing is top notch!

Man, that was a brilliant set of videos! It was so interesting watching you solve problems. I was so thrilled to watch each step of your journey and can't wait for your next mission. Loved the ending too - so funny!!

Good job, my guy. I had a lot of fun watching you progress. Thanks for the video

Absolutely loved watching your progress from the first design to this one!

wow...... this is amazing, well done for the good hard work you have put into the race preparation , the experience you got from this race will go a long way in helping you prepare for other races

This whole project was super inspiring! Great achievement participating in this competition. Wish you the best!

I love that you're making robotics fun and accessable. Keep up the great work!

Been watching the build process and am excited you got to run! Good job on the car and the videos! Thanks for sharing your journey.

I have never been so emotionally invested in a project before! This was not a fare race! A real fare race has a fixed track that does not change, with the main focus being speed and overtakes. You rock man, I'm am so proud of you!!

Awesome presentation of the material! Very interesting, informative, humorous! A great illuminated idea! Good luck and thank you so much for sharing!

Dude, the "Max v paper strategies" bit made me spill my drink, nice 💯