Autonomous Car Race Creates $400k Engineering Jobs For Top Silicon Valley Talent

The rush to develop self-driving cars is fueling lucrative deals for autonomous tech firms, from GM's $581 million purchase of Cruise, Uber's $680 million Otto acquisition and Ford's $1 billion Argo Ai project, made the founders of those startups wealthy. But in the epicenter of this particular race there's a tight supply of seasoned computer scientists and engineers needed to perfect the technology, giving rise to considerable salaries for top talent. Salaries in the Bay Area, including annual bonuses and equity, currently average $295,000 a year for top self-driving car engineers, and range from $232,000 to as much as $405,000, based on data from Paysa, a Palo Alto firm that analyzes pay and job trends using an artificial intelligence-enabled data platform. The average is more than four times the California median household income of $64,500 in 2015 and over five times the U.S. average, based on Census figures. Salaries are so high because the pool of talented engineers is somewhat limited right now, Paysa CEO Chris Bolte told Forbes.