Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2022 - 4

The Navigator
Sam Abuelsamid
Principal Analyst,
eMobility
Guidehouse Insights
sam.abuelsamid@
guidehouse.com
Imaging radar is the next big thing
Radar is nothing new to the automotive
industry. Vehicles have been equipped with radar
for adaptive cruise control (ACC) since the 1990s
and many current models have as many as five
radar sensors. Although radar is a great way to
measure the distance and closing speed to other
vehicles, current-generation sensors offer woefully
low resolution. That's why imaging radar is set to
come on strong over the next several years.
Imaging radar, also referred to as high-definition
or high-resolution radar, is designed to bridge
some of the gap between current-generation
radar and lidar - while retaining the traditional
advantages of the radio frequency-based
sensors. Like lidar, radar is
an active sensor that emits a signal
and listens for reflections. Since the
sensor is the source and the speed of
the signal is known, the distance to
the reflecting object can be precisely
measured. Radar signals also are
unbothered by fog, rain, snow or
adverse lighting conditions.
Passive cameras, meanwhile,
over the next two years from companies including
Continental, Magna/Uhnder and Oculii use the
equivalent of 12 transmitters and 16 receivers to
produce 192 virtual channels. The result is something
that looks approximately like a lidar point
cloud, with returns across a broader field of view.
This allows the software to distinguish between
the overpass, the road below and the vehicle in
the gap in between. Other imaging-radar developers,
including Arbe and Mobileye, are promising
sensors with 2,000 points.
Just as with lidar, there are multiple flavors
The annual
market for
imaging radar
will grow to
more than 128
million units
by 2030.
collect only ambient light radiation and have no
known reference point for measuring distance and
speed when used in the common monofocal configuration
in vehicles. Multi-camera systems, however,
can use geometry to calculate precise range.
Today's typical automotive radars have three
transmitters and four receivers to yield 12 virtual
channels, usually in a single plane. That's why they
have trouble distinguishing between a vehicle
stopped on the shoulder and a sign or overpass.
Thus, most current ACC systems ignore stationary
objects when moving more than about 40 mph (64
km/h) and look only for movement in the same or
adjacent lane. They are fine for ACC and blindspot
monitoring, but inadequate for higher levels of
driving automation.
The first imaging radars coming to market
of imaging radar. Continental's ARS540 sensor is
an analog sensor like other current
units, but with an increased number
of transmitters and receivers. The
Magna Icon sensor developed with
Uhnder is a fully digital sensor on
a chip that features programmable
scan patterns. Like lidar sensors from
Aeye and Luminar, it doesn't emit
only a fixed grid of pulses.
Instead, a denser pattern can be
made in areas of interest - such as
near the horizon - with a less-dense pattern off to the
perimeter on the sides, or in-close or up-high. Uhnder
claims its sensor can detect a pedestrian at 300 m
(984 ft.) and a tire laying on the road at 200 m (656
ft.) with significantly lower power consumption than
analog sensors - and at a cost comparable to current
low resolution sensors. Oculii uses a software-based
approach to do adaptive phase modulation using
current-generation hardware. This enables Oculii's
imaging radar to produce 192 virtual channels.
Guidehouse Insights projects that the annual
market for imaging radar will grow to more than
128 million units by 2030. These are expected to be
a key element in improving the capabilities of driver-assist
features as the industry and regulators
globally strive to reduce the number of crashes
and fatalities that have spiked in recent years. ■
4 January 2022
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2022

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