By Jae-Eun Lee, CEO and Founder, bitsensing
People have been interested in the idea of autonomous cars for more than a century, since radio-controlled ‘phantom autos’ first took to the streets in the 1920s. While progress towards ‘full’ autonomous driving has been slower than expected, self-driving technology is evolving rapidly and is forecast to grow from $1.7 trillion in 2024 to $3.9 trillion by 2034. The focus in today’s evolving market for self-driving technology is on improving driver safety and reducing the 1.3 million deaths per year caused by car crashes. Crucial to this will be new sensors, with radar offering a cheap, scalable way to boost safety in cars and key advantages over technologies such as cameras and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) systems, paving the way for truly autonomous cars in the coming years.
Today’s Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) are the stepping stones to the truly autonomous cars of tomorrow, with sensors working to keep drivers safer and enabling crucial safety systems. Radar is growing in importance as a sensor and is outpacing the growth of other sensors in autonomous driving and ADAS, with a compound annual growth rate of 10.5%. The sensors deliver key advantages around precision and reliability and are being deployed in crucial safety systems such as Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) systems, which are helping to make roads a safer place for cars, bikes and pedestrians.
Why Radar Matters?
Many self-driving systems rely on LiDAR technology, but the technology has several key disadvantages compared to radar in vehicles. LiDAR sensors are relatively expensive, using laser pulses to build 3D maps of their surrounding area to navigate and avoid collisions, and perform less well in some conditions.
Radar sensors are emerging as a key technology in driverless car systems: they are cheap, reliable and accurate. Radar works by emitting radio waves (as opposed to laser for LiDAR and visible light for cameras) and then receiving and amplifying those waves as they ‘bounce back’ from nearby objects such as vehicles, buildings and pedestrians. Unlike optical systems, radar works perfectly well even in total darkness and in fog, rain or snow. With a range of up to 300 metres and a velocity resolution of 0.14ms, radar offers a low-cost, scalable way to ‘sense’ nearby objects.
See the Road in 4D
With demand for radar growing in the self-driving and ADAS sector, the technology is evolving rapidly. Newer breakthroughs, such as ‘4D imaging’ radar, offer object recognition and range measurement with precision similar to LiDAR but without losing performance in weather or low lighting.
Using 4D imaging radar, sensors can also rapidly generate point clouds. Point clouds are sets of data points in space that go together to make up a 3D shape of a physical object, built from millions of individual measurement points. LiDAR can create point clouds but is unable to measure velocity. Using 4D imaging radar, sensors in cars can quickly make sense of their surroundings, identifying different road users such as trucks, cars, bikes and pedestrians and sensing their speed instantly.
Stopping in Time
Real-time radar sensors are already helping make roads safer worldwide. One key ADAS feature is AEB systems, which are already becoming increasingly common in cars and are set to become universal in both the European Union and the United States, thanks to new regulations. Radar technology plays a starring role in many cutting-edge AEB systems, with its long range and all-weather operation enabling rapid detection of pedestrians and cars, often paired with other sensors such as advanced cameras.
New vehicle safety regulations in Europe, which came into effect in July 2022, mean that all new vehicles in the EU must be equipped with advanced safety systems, including AEB, alongside other regulations that pave the way for autonomous self-driving vehicles. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is creating a new regulatory framework to make AEB systems standard in passenger vehicles. These technologies will be foundational for the development of true self-driving systems in the coming years. AEB systems are hugely important for developing SAE Level 3 autonomy, where vehicles can drive by themselves, but a human driver must be ready to take over.
A Safer Future
Radar sensors will be foundational for our driverless future. Offering key advantages over sensors such as LiDAR and cameras, radar sensors are already helping to make roads safer in the form of AEB systems, and will help automakers on the journey towards safer streets, paving the way for tomorrow’s truly autonomous vehicles.
About the Author: Dr. Jae-Eun Lee, CEO of bitsensing, holds a PhD from Seoul National University and led radar tech development at Mando, supplying advanced systems to GM, Ford, BMW, Hyundai, and Kia.
