How to upgrade vehicle sensors

With the continuous improvement of automobile intelligence, vehicle-mounted sensors represented by cameras and millimeter-wave radars have begun to play an increasingly important role in automobiles. Looking at the market, in the past two years, most new cars have been equipped with driving assistance systems based on cameras or millimeter-wave radars to achieve higher driving safety and better driving comfort. As a result, vehicle-mounted sensors have entered a new round of explosive growth. 

ADAS becomes standard, and vehicle sensors usher in new growth opportunities 

According to relevant data, the global markets for automotive cameras, millimeter-wave radars and night vision systems will enter a period of rapid growth around 2020. The market size of automotive cameras is expected to reach RMB 13.3 billion in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 16%; the market size of millimeter-wave radars will reach RMB 57.6 billion in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 20%; and the market size of night vision systems will reach RMB 51.4 billion in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 12%. 

The main driving force behind the continuous expansion of the in-vehicle sensor market is the rapid penetration of ADAS in the mass-produced car market, especially camera-based recognition and warning ADAS, such as TSR traffic sign recognition, LDW lane departure warning, AEB automatic emergency braking, LKA lane keeping assist, FCW forward collision warning, 360° panoramic parking, etc. These functions are gradually becoming standard features of more and more new cars because they can provide a certain degree of safety assistance to the driver during driving. 

Image source: Roewe official website 

For example, the newly launched new Roewe i5 is equipped with six ADAS functions, including AEB automatic emergency braking, FCW forward collision warning, ACC adaptive cruise control, SAS intelligent speed assistance, IHC automatic high and low beam switching, and LDW lane departure warning. EXEED Xingtu LX has more, with 17 driving assistance functions, including conventional configurations such as LDW lane departure warning, LKA lane keeping assist, FCW forward collision warning, as well as FAPA fully automatic parking system and 360° panoramic high-definition imaging, which can better help car owners clear driving blind spots. 

Due to the widespread installation in mass-produced vehicles, the installation rate of ADAS on new vehicles has increased significantly in the past two years. According to relevant statistics, by the end of the first quarter of 2019, the installation rate of L1-L2 ADAS systems on new vehicles had increased from 5-12% at the end of 2018 to 11-26%. Specifically, in the mid-to-high-end and high-end vehicle fields, the installation rate of L1-L2 ADAS systems on new vehicles has increased across the board, while in the mid-to-low-end vehicle market, based on the increasing maturity of camera and image processing technology, as well as the continued decline in the price of on-board cameras, the installation rate of ADAS functions has also increased significantly.

In particular, the two functions of AEB automatic emergency braking and FCW forward collision warning are driven by the test content of E-NCAP and C-NCAP, and the installation rate is generally higher than other ADAS functions. From this point of view, policy standards are also one of the main reasons driving the rapid popularization of ADAS, and it is expected that relevant policies will continue to stimulate the demand for ADAS in the terminal market in the future. Because combined with the current technological trends, functions such as emergency steering, rear-end protection, child detection, driver monitoring, etc. are likely to be included in the detection scope of new car collision tests in the future to improve vehicle safety. 

As regulations continue to advance, as one of the domestic ADAS suppliers, Furuitech believes that OEMs will pay more and more attention to the intelligent driving market. At present, ADAS is becoming a standard configuration of automotive safety features. Judging from the current status and trends of technology and the market, autonomous driving will continue to rely on assisted driving to improve driving safety and comfort in the future. This means that automakers will need to further enhance the perception capabilities of vehicles in the future to achieve higher safety and reliability. 

Automotive intelligence drives more innovative applications to be explored 

As vehicle-mounted sensor technology matures, the automotive industry has made great progress in the development of vision-based ADAS functions in the past two years. However, there are still many technical challenges to achieve the transition from ADAS to high-level autonomous driving. In view of this, in addition to the already popular ADAS functions, more and more car companies are beginning to explore more innovative applications of cameras, millimeter-wave radars and lidars in the car, while improving the safety of the entire vehicle and providing users with a better car experience.

For example, Volvo is planning to introduce driver monitoring cameras for all its new SPA2-based models. According to Volvo's vision, when a drunk, drug-affected driver does not respond to warning signals and there is a risk of serious casualties, the vehicle will automatically take intervention measures, including limiting the speed, starting Volvo's on-call service to provide rescue, and if all are ineffective, the vehicle will take the initiative to slow down and stop safely as the final measure. 

Image source: Volvo official website 

At the same time, Volvo also plans to develop an in-vehicle camera to monitor the driver's behavior and certain health indicators, and accurately identify which passenger is driving the vehicle, so as to adjust the vehicle settings accordingly according to the personalized needs of the corresponding passenger to meet personal preferences. Because whether the driver's behavior complies with regulations, mental and health conditions are good, it directly affects the driver's driving safety to a large extent. This also shows that whether it is for the current stage of driving assistance or for higher-level autonomous driving cars in the future, in-vehicle cameras have become an indispensable hard indicator. 

In addition, some innovative sensor solutions are constantly being proposed. Recently, Continental has developed an integrated camera system that includes an internal infrared camera and an external camera. It can monitor the driver's situation and continuously monitor whether the driver is performing driving operations, while also detecting traffic conditions in front of the vehicle. Tesla plans to use cameras to determine the number of passengers in the car, thereby realizing a series of personalized settings. 

Although these technical solutions are still in the early stages of research and development, relying on the fusion of multiple sensors to provide vehicles with higher safety and comfort has become the mainstream. A typical example is Tesla, whose Autopilot 2.0 has 8 cameras installed around the car body, including 3 front cameras with different focal lengths, 2 side cameras and 3 rear cameras, and the field of view basically achieves 360° coverage of the entire car. 

In the long run, the number and types of sensors carried on bicycles are expected to continue to increase, and may reach 29 by 2030. Based on this trend, how to make multiple sensors work together to further enhance the vehicle's perception ability has become an urgent problem to be solved in the current automotive industry. 

Autonomous driving is in the ascendant, and multi-sensor fusion is the future 

Although cameras have excellent performance in obtaining environmental information such as vehicles, pedestrians, and traffic lights, due to their ability to accurately identify the properties of objects, their limitations cannot be ignored. In particular, in harsh environments such as strong light, rain, snow, and fog, the recognition accuracy of cameras is easily affected. In addition, camera-based ADAS solutions often require cars to have strong computer vision capabilities. If the latter does not meet the requirements, it will also affect the final perception results. 

On the other hand, if only millimeter-wave radar is used in the ADAS system, it will also be difficult to meet the precise perception requirements of autonomous vehicles. Although millimeter-wave radar has strong penetration, its imaging effect needs to be further optimized. 

"Therefore, with complementary advantages, the integration of multiple sensors is becoming an important development trend of autonomous driving," said Yang Gengshuo, Secretary General of China International Optoelectronics Exposition. Gu Jianmin, CTO of Valeo China, also believes that sensor integration and perception redundancy are necessary conditions to ensure the safety of autonomous driving. "Because each sensor has its strengths and weaknesses, humans still need eyes, ears and navigation assistance when driving a car, and autonomous driving also needs it," said Gu Jianmin. 

This is indeed the case. In the past two years, more and more companies have begun to explore multi-sensor fusion solutions based on millimeter-wave radars and cameras to achieve better ADAS functions. For example, WM Motor's Living Pilot driver assistance system uses a camera + millimeter-wave radar fusion solution with as many as 20 sensors, including 1 front-mounted monocular high-definition camera, 3 millimeter-wave radars, 4 panoramic cameras and 12 ultrasonic radars. 

Image source: Geometry A official website 

Geometry A is a new pure electric vehicle under Geely, and its L2 plus intelligent active driving system also adopts the fusion solution of camera + millimeter wave radar. With this sensor combination, Geometry A can realize multiple ADAS functions such as RCW rear collision warning system, DOW door opening warning system, LKA lane keeping system, etc., which greatly improves driving safety. There are many similar new cars. It is foreseeable that the fusion of sensors such as cameras and millimeter wave radars will become the mainstream trend of the market in the future.