A profile series that introduces our team and showcases what we’re working on.
I’m Julie Derence and I am a senior software engineer at Uber ATG working to develop self-driving technology for Uber’s ride-sharing service. In my role at Uber ATG, I’m working as part of the team that is laying the foundation for the software architecture in use in our self-driving fleet. It’s great to have an opportunity to apply new ideas and industry standards to the use cases that we’ve become familiar with over the last four years at Uber ATG.
I came to Uber ATG back in 2015, when the ATG branch of Uber was founded. Fun fact: I was actually the first female employee. I had been working in the world of self-driving technology for some time and I truly enjoyed the challenges and the goals of the technology. Uber ATG presented the opportunity to continue developing self-driving technology with the additional ability to make an impact on the world in a very meaningful way. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up!
Now
Right now I’m helping to develop data architecture to use with the self-driving stack for our system. The data layer is fundamental to allow all of our developers to experiment and test with confidence, so it’s a very exciting space to work in. The teams of people working on the tech stack are from a variety of backgrounds — academia, research, industry, operations, etc. — and each has their own set of requirements and ways of working. Interfacing with the data to satisfy all of those teams’ needs gives me the opportunity to meet and network with folks from all over the organization.
Next
The challenge that we are facing is getting data and the architecture into a place where the technology performs efficiently with 500+ developers hosted in multiple cities, all actively interacting with data on a daily basis. The scale of what we do can be daunting, and I’m excited to see how it will come together. With all of our amazing and driven developers, there will be new needs and use cases that the data layer will need to meet.
Future
I’m excited about how self-driving vehicles will change the transportation landscape. We hope it will connect people to places that were not readily available to them before. After working with this technology for over a decade, I can now envision the application of self-driving everywhere I go.
I’m personally looking forward to a day when a self-driving vehicle can take my family on a trip to the beach — and I can enjoy the time with my boys rather than focusing on driving!
Come back soon for more from our series “Now, Next, Future: The People of Uber ATG” as we introduce our team and showcase what we’re working on. Interested in pushing the transportation needle forward with Uber ATG? Join our team!