Robotics clubs aren’t supposed to feel like real engineering jobs, but for Max Bretschneider and his club, they did.

He joined his university’s autonomous car team before he ever sat through his first lecture. Five years later, he’s mentoring new builders, competing internationally, and working professionally in autonomous vehicles.

Max’s secret to keeping a volunteer-only robotics team alive? A development environment that newcomers can actually use.

In this episode, Nicky Pike sits down with Max Bretschneider to talk about onboarding students with wildly different experience levels, eliminating the hardware barriers that stop people from joining, and why templates became the backbone of a million-line robotics project.

If you’ve ever tried to teach someone Ubuntu while your robot is trying to drive into a wall, this one will feel close to home.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. How a cloud workspace removes the hardware barriers that block new robotics students from learning
2. Why templates make debugging and version switching faster in large robotics projects
3. What real mentorship looks like when nobody has the full answer

Things to listen for:

(00:00) Meet Max Bretschneider

(00:42) Why robotics forces developers to learn everything

(01:46) How Max discovered Coder at work

(03:03) Giving up the local machine for a cloud workspace

(05:26) Balancing experience levels inside the robotics club

(07:08) Mentoring new developers with open source culture

(10:40) The onboarding challenges of running ROS in university clubs

(13:20) The impact of varying levels of student experience on the robotics club

(15:30) How community keeps robotics teams alive

(17:00) The race car challenge that stuck with Max

(18:07) The three-wheels-in rule that won them points

(20:30) Why hardware and OS requirements block new members

(23:06) The pain of switching ROS versions locally

(25:10) Teaching students without grabbing the keyboard

(30:24) Building and customizing robotics templates in Coder

(34:42) The role of simulations in testing and development

(39:12) Preparing simulations for competitions

(42:09) The importance of developing a strategy post-competition

(46:11) How the routine of competition day separates experienced members from newcomers

(50:14) The transition to AI-driven robots and the excitement it brings

(52:04) How tech companies could better support robotics programs

(53:23) Moving towards web-based tools for robotics development

(54:33) What being a coder means to Max

Resources:

Max Bretschneider’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-bretschneider-895351237/

Mercedes-Benz AG website: http://www.mercedes-benz.com/