Intelligent connected vehicles are accelerating, while millimeter-wave radar is growing wildly

my country's new energy vehicles have experienced more than 20 years of rapid development and have achieved outstanding results. With the popularization of electrification, the process of automobile intelligence has also been further accelerated.

However, industry insiders pointed out that "the challenges and changes facing the intelligent development of the automotive industry will only become greater. Because in addition to the competition in traditional automotive technology and manufacturing technology, it also faces other cross-domain challenges." Among these cross-domain challenges, the first breakthrough is in core sensing components such as sensors.

Radar, one of the three main sensors in a car, has only been considered the main sensor in a vehicle in recent years, mainly due to the increase in the installation rate of AEB (an active safety technology for cars). The evolution from ADAS to autonomous driving has promoted the demand for millimeter-wave radar and also accelerated the wild growth of the millimeter-wave radar industry.

Intelligent connected vehicles accelerate

On January 13, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released data showing that new energy vehicles grew against the trend. In 2020, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 1.366 million and 1.367 million, up 7.5% and 10.9% year-on-year. Driven by the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)", new energy vehicles are expected to usher in sustained and rapid growth in the future.

The popularization of electric vehicles also lays a solid foundation for the development of intelligence. The "Plan" mentions that by 2025, my country will achieve commercial application of highly automated driving vehicles in limited areas and specific scenarios. This will further accelerate the development of intelligent connected vehicles, but it also means that it will face greater challenges and changes.

An industry insider told Jiwei.com that "As cars develop towards intelligence, the challenges and changes they face will become increasingly greater. Because in addition to the competition in traditional automotive technology and manufacturing technology, they also face other cross-domain challenges." He believes that these cross-domain challenges include hardware problems such as AI chips and radar sensors that need to be solved for intelligent driving, as well as issues with vehicle control operating systems, development software, and verification test platforms. 

From the perspective of the intelligent connected vehicle industry chain, it involves multiple aspects such as perception, algorithm, execution and terminal, among which perception is a particularly basic and critical step. At present, the core components in the field of perception include lidar sensors, millimeter wave radar sensors and cameras.

At present, China is still in the stage of popularization of ADAS applications, and millimeter-wave radar plays a very important role in this stage.

Industry insiders pointed out that "the installation rate of intelligent network functions in domestic cars is not high at present, only about 5%, and it is generally only available in high-end models above 350,000 yuan. However, the trend is that it will definitely be popularized to mid- and low-end models in the future. According to the requirements of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the installation rate will reach 85% in 2025."

With the acceleration of the intelligence of mid- and low-end vehicle models, the application of millimeter-wave radar in the automotive field will be greatly enhanced.

"Millimeter wave radar is regarded as the future development direction in the field of autonomous driving perception due to its advantages such as long detection distance, high accuracy, affordable price, protection of personal privacy and no influence from weather and environment." A person related to Chuhang Technology told Jiwei.com.

The biggest difference between millimeter-wave radar and LiDAR is that the electromagnetic waves in the millimeter-wave band are not affected by common environmental factors such as rain, fog, and dust. Therefore, millimeter-wave radar is an important guarantee for the stable operation of autonomous driving.

Regarding the application of vehicle-mounted millimeter-wave radar in autonomous driving, Chuhang Technology believes that "autonomous driving is one of the future development directions, and core sensing components are the eyes of autonomous driving. Only when the core sensing components are technologically advanced and mature, autonomous driving will gradually upgrade."

The wild growth of millimeter wave radar

As cars enter the "deep waters" of intelligence, the development speed of the millimeter-wave radar market will further accelerate.

Regarding the development trend of the millimeter wave market, industry insiders believe that "millimeter wave radar will first use imported products, but domestic substitution is a major trend, because these core components determine the future development of China's automobile industry. If the key core components are still purchased from abroad, we cannot achieve our real goal, so the domestic substitution in this area is definitely moving forward step by step, and we are still optimistic about the market for domestic radars in the future."

In fact, millimeter-wave radar was popular when it first emerged two years ago. More than 50 domestic companies have tried to enter this field. With the support of chip manufacturers, many manufacturers have made functional prototypes, but the threshold for functional prototypes to be put into mass production has screened out many manufacturers. Because automotive products involve high reliability and consistency, high standards are also set for corporate quality control and cost control.

"At present, millimeter-wave radar is still in the stage of wild growth in the whole industry. Manufacturers who insist on deepening their involvement in this field are rushing to become the leading enterprises, and the competition is still relatively fierce." A person from Chuhang Technology said. The domestic market is now mainly benchmarked against the international "ABCD" companies, namely Autoliv, Bosch, Continental and Delphi.

Looking at the A-share market, there are no companies whose core business is millimeter-wave radar. This market is still dominated by "wildly growing" start-ups. Among them, companies that have attracted market attention include Chengtai Technology, Chuhang Technology, and some companies' products have reached automotive standards.

In November 2020, Chengtai Technology, whose main members come from Huawei's R&D department, completed its A+ round of financing. Tianyancha shows that this round of investment was jointly invested by Yida Capital, Xinlei Energy and Founder Hesheng, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Founder Securities. So far, Chengtai Technology has designed and built three millimeter-wave radar automated production lines with an annual production capacity of more than 1 million units; its products have been used in the original equipment market for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and special vehicles.

Chuhang Technology also completed its A+ round of financing last year. It is understood that Chuhang Technology is currently the only manufacturer in China that mass-produces forward long-range radars, and has a number of core automotive-grade radar products: 77GHz passenger car forward long-range radar and corner radar, vehicle-mounted vital signs detection radar, and 77GHz commercial vehicle corner radar. Its corner radar is currently mainly used in the aftermarket for commercial vehicles, and the forward radar has currently obtained the pre-installation order from the vehicle manufacturer, and the product will be mass-produced at the end of this year.

Passenger car corner radar

It is worth mentioning that the wild growth of millimeter-wave radar is also reflected in its wide range of application areas. In addition to the fields of national defense and automotive active safety, millimeter-wave radar can also be used in smart Internet of Things.

Previously, SiDian Micro, which focuses on the research and development of high-performance wireless RF technology and related chip products, launched an ultra-small area, 100-milliwatt-level ultra-low power consumption AIoT millimeter-wave sensor SoC series. According to customer needs, SiDian Micro also installed millimeter-wave radars for bicycles to achieve obstacle avoidance functions.

"Gold is found only after the sand is washed away by the waves." After the wild growth stage of the millimeter-wave radar market is over, many excellent companies will emerge from this fast-growing track and jointly promote the development of intelligent connected vehicles and intelligent Internet of Things.