Internship / Master Thesis - End-to-end Automated Driving with World Models (m/f/d)

Internship / Master Thesis - End-to-end Automated Driving with World Models (m/f/d)

Job ID:  20968
Company:  CARIAD SE
Location: 

München, DE, 80807

Department:  Apprenticeship & Study
Career Level:  Students
Working Model:  Full-time
Contract Type:  Fixed-term
Remote Working:  By agreement
Posting Date:  Jan 28, 2026

Internship / Master Thesis - End-to-end Automated Driving with World Models (m/f/d)

We are CARIAD, the automotive software company of the Volkswagen Group. Our teams build automotive software platforms and digital customer functions for iconic brands like Audi, Volkswagen, and Porsche – supporting the Volkswagen Group in becoming the leading automotive technology company. With CARIDIANS in Germany, the USA, China, Estonia, and India, we are transforming automotive mobility for everyone.

Join us and be part of this exciting journey!

YOUR TEAM

We offer you an exciting opportunity for your master thesis or for an internship in our AI Core team in the field of end-to-end AI for automated driving. End-to-end networks enable joint optimization of the driving stack, allowing training of different tasks (such as perception and planning) in one model. The aim of this master thesis / the internship is to assess and enhance end-to-end machine learning models for automated driving. Your focus will be optimizing network architectures for efficient single-stage training and closed-loop evaluation, while achieving compatibility with predictive world models. 

The department works on software and machine learning models for automated driving in urban environments. Within this department, we are a team of ambitious and highly motivated experts in the field of self-driving vehicles working in an agile environment to advance the autonomous driving stack.  

WHAT YOU WILL DO

  • Research and assess open-source end-to-end neural networks for automated driving 
  • Employ pretrained foundational models to leverage their representational power within the end-to-end network 
  • Improve networks for single-stage training and optimize for closed-loop performance 
  • Adapt the end-to-end model to be compatible with a predictive world model 
  • Conduct extensive experiments on public and internal datasets 
  • Work closely with our machine learning experts and PhD students with the aim for a scientific contribution 

WHO YOU ARE

  • Very good academic performance  
  • Master student in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering or similar 
  • Good general knowledge in the field of (self-)supervised learning, transformer-based architectures, and (vision) foundation models 
  • Very good knowledge of machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch and applied knowledge in software development and programming in Python and C++ 
  • Structured and independent work, above-average commitment and flexibility 
  • Strong communication skills and analytical understanding  

NICE TO KNOW

  • Remote work options within Germany 

  • Duration: 3 - 6 months 

  • 35 h/week 

  • Salary: 13,90 €/hour  

At CARIAD, we embrace individuality and diversity because we believe our differences make us stronger. We actively seek to build teams with a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. Our goal is to create an environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to contribute. If you need assistance with your application due to a disability, please reach out to us at careers@cariad.technology - we are happy to support you.

We are CARIAD, the automotive software company of the Volkswagen Group. Our teams build automotive software platforms and digital customer functions for iconic brands like Audi, Volkswagen, and Porsche – supporting the Volkswagen Group in becoming the leading automotive technology company. With CARIDIANS in Germany, the USA, China, Estonia, and India, we are transforming automotive mobility for everyone.

Join us and be part of this exciting journey!

YOUR TEAM

We offer you an exciting opportunity for your master thesis or for an internship in our AI Core team in the field of end-to-end AI for automated driving. End-to-end networks enable joint optimization of the driving stack, allowing training of different tasks (such as perception and planning) in one model. The aim of this master thesis / the internship is to assess and enhance end-to-end machine learning models for automated driving. Your focus will be optimizing network architectures for efficient single-stage training and closed-loop evaluation, while achieving compatibility with predictive world models. 

The department works on software and machine learning models for automated driving in urban environments. Within this department, we are a team of ambitious and highly motivated experts in the field of self-driving vehicles working in an agile environment to advance the autonomous driving stack.  

WHAT YOU WILL DO

  • Research and assess open-source end-to-end neural networks for automated driving 
  • Employ pretrained foundational models to leverage their representational power within the end-to-end network 
  • Improve networks for single-stage training and optimize for closed-loop performance 
  • Adapt the end-to-end model to be compatible with a predictive world model 
  • Conduct extensive experiments on public and internal datasets 
  • Work closely with our machine learning experts and PhD students with the aim for a scientific contribution 

WHO YOU ARE

  • Very good academic performance  
  • Master student in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering or similar 
  • Good general knowledge in the field of (self-)supervised learning, transformer-based architectures, and (vision) foundation models 
  • Very good knowledge of machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch and applied knowledge in software development and programming in Python and C++ 
  • Structured and independent work, above-average commitment and flexibility 
  • Strong communication skills and analytical understanding  

NICE TO KNOW

  • Remote work options within Germany 

  • Duration: 3 - 6 months 

  • 35 h/week 

  • Salary: 13,90 €/hour  

At CARIAD, we embrace individuality and diversity because we believe our differences make us stronger. We actively seek to build teams with a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. Our goal is to create an environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to contribute. If you need assistance with your application due to a disability, please reach out to us at careers@cariad.technology - we are happy to support you.

Job ID:  20968
Company:  CARIAD SE
Location: 

München, DE, 80807

Department:  Apprenticeship & Study
Career Level:  Students
Working Model:  Full-time
Contract Type:  Fixed-term
Remote Working:  By agreement
Posting Date:  Jan 28, 2026

Why CARIAD?

We believe that how we work together is just as important as the technology we create. We strive to take action with a can-do attitude, and value speed over perfection. We aim to collaborate with mutual trust, taking accountability for our actions. We foster transparency and welcome diverse perspectives as we learn, adapt, and grow together

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