Optimizing the cost of training AWS DeepRacer reinforcement learning models

AWS DeepRacer is a cloud-based 3D racing simulator, an autonomous 1/18th scale race car driven by reinforcement learning, and a global racing league. Reinforcement learning (RL), an advanced machine learning (ML) technique, enables models to learn complex behaviors without labeled training data and make short-term decisions while optimizing for longer-term goals. But as we humans can attest, learning something well takes time--and time is money. You can build and train a simple "all-wheels-on-track" model in the AWS DeepRacer console in just a couple of hours. However, if you're building complex models involving multiple parameters, a reward function using trigonometry, or generally diving deep into RL, there are steps you can take to optimize the cost of training.