Racing into the future: How AWS DeepRacer fueled my AI and ML journey

In 2018, I sat in the audience at AWS re:Invent as Andy Jassy announced AWS DeepRacer—a fully autonomous 1/18th scale race car driven by reinforcement learning. At the time, I knew little about AI or machine learning (ML). As an engineer transitioning from legacy networks to cloud technologies, I had never considered myself a developer. But AWS DeepRacer instantly captured my interest with its promise that even inexperienced developers could get involved in AI and ML.

The AWS DeepRacer League was also announced, featuring physical races at AWS Summits worldwide in 2019 and a virtual league in a simulated environment. Winners would qualify to compete for the grand champion title in Las Vegas the following year. For 2018, because AWS DeepRacer had just been unveiled, re:Invent attendees could compete in person at the MGM Grand using pre-trained models.

My colleagues and I from JigsawXYZ immediately headed ...