A single individual can now build a self-driving car, whereas ten years ago it was a DARPA-funded research challenge.

Judge as of early 2018. True: credible evidence shows a single individual had built a working self-driving car by then (e.g., George Hotz's comma.ai prototype or similar one-person builds) and that around 2004–2008 autonomous driving was a DARPA-funded challenge (DARPA Grand/Urban Challenges). Mostly true: individual builds existed but were limited (e.g., highway driver-assist rather than full autonomy) while the DARPA comparison is accurate. Mixed: one part holds and the other is substantially off. Mostly false: the one-person example relies on a team or company, or achieved only rudimentary capability, so the claim overstates a narrow case. False: no individual had built anything reasonably described as a self-driving car, or the DARPA comparison is wrong.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Hacker George 'Geohot' Hotz brings trash talk and a real prototype to self-driving cars VentureBeat · 19 September 2016

   “In December, Hotz unveiled a self-driving car built with off-the-shelf parts and his own custom software. A Bloomberg writer, Ashlee Vance, confirmed that the car drove itself on the I-280 freeway in the Bay Area.”

2. E2 George Hotz Wants to Sell You a Self-Driving Car Kit Inverse · 7 June 2016

   “Hotz and his start-up autonomous vehicle company Comma.ai first garnered public attention in December, when Hotz said he built an autonomous system better than Tesla’s Autopilot in a month.”

3. E3 George Hotz cancels his self-driving car project The Verge · 28 October 2016

   “As recently as last week he wrote a blog post saying that Comma One “will not turn your car into an autonomous vehicle. It is an advanced driver assistance system.””

4. E4 DARPA Urban Challenge | DARPA DARPA · 2007

   “Building on the success of the 2004 and 2005 Grand Challenges, the DARPA Urban Challenge required teams to build an autonomous vehicle capable of driving in traffic, performing complex maneuvers such as merging, passing, parking, and negotiating intersections.”

E1 reports that George Hotz unveiled a self-driving car in December 2015, built from off-the-shelf parts and his own software, and that a Bloomberg writer confirmed it drove itself on a Bay Area freeway. E2 reports that Hotz said he built the system in a month. E3 shows the product was limited: Hotz described his Comma One product as an advanced driver assistance system, not an autonomous vehicle. E4 confirms that autonomous driving in 2004–2007 was run as DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges for teams, so the comparison holds; this fits the "mostly true" criterion.