Technical discussion: How will Tesla use millimeter wave radar next?

In May 2021, Tesla cancelled the millimeter-wave radar installed in Model 3 and subsequent models, but recently Tesla has been updating the radar part of the entire product.

From the current perspective, the following information is worth noting:

Tesla used the supplier’s millimeter-wave radar, specifically the ASR4-B, on the 2012-2016 and 2016-2021 Model S/X and different stages of the 3/Y.

Currently, Tesla has two products under certification, namely the front 77GHZ millimeter-wave radar and the 60GHZ millimeter-wave radar. The former is used for autonomous driving, and the latter is used in the cockpit to monitor the situation inside the car, which is also prepared to cope with European regulations.

The biggest change here is the 60GHZ model, which has become a supplier to Tesla. This is similar to Fob, TPMS and Bluetooth keys, which have changed from being supplied by the original suppliers to Tesla cooperating with chip companies and outsourcing production to foundry companies.

I tend to think that the millimeter-wave radar of early Continental cars, like the previous TPMS, was replaced by Tesla, and after cooperating with chip companies, the new technology was still introduced into the car.

Table 1 Radar-related products in Tesla's parts library

Currently, the components in Tesla's EPC have not been updated and are still Continental Automotive's product ARS 4-B before 2021, and the new millimeter-wave radar has not yet been installed.

Note: The FCC ID of this product is OAYARS4B

Figure 1 Overview of Tesla's existing parts

PART 1: Millimeter-wave radar used in the forward direction

Tesla requested a 180-day short-term confidentiality for this product (it can be disclosed on December 4, 2022), which means that we can only see the label of this radar. Similar to most products, this is also produced in Taiwan, China, and it is also certified by Tesla. Therefore, the difference from ASR4-B made in China is that Tesla's certification engineers are responsible for it - in other words, it was developed by product engineers.

Figure 2 Tesla-certified millimeter-wave radar products

Judging from the basic size and condition of the millimeter-wave radar, it is most likely a product similar to the one used by NIO on its new generation platform.

Figure 3 NIO's millimeter-wave radar

At present, most millimeter-wave radars use single-chip transceivers, usually with only 3 transmitters and 4 receivers, and only 12 virtual channels. If a 4D millimeter-wave radar is used, 100+ (192) virtual channels need to be considered, and the resolution can be improved on this basis. The same is true for the solution of TI, which has a good relationship with Tesla, using AWR2243 instead of MR3003 and TDA2x instead of FPGA. Therefore, from the current point of view, the possibility of Tesla using 4D millimeter-wave radar is very low, and the possibility of using a self-made 77GHZ millimeter-wave radar is very high.

Figure 4 TI's 4D millimeter wave radar

PART 2: 60 GHZ radar

There is nothing taboo about the 60GHz vital signs detection radar. Tesla has made it all available. Its label and appearance are as follows:

Figure 5 Tesla’s vital signs radar

With the changes in millimeter-wave radar technology, the overall difficulty has indeed decreased a lot, and the threshold of the entire product has been greatly lowered.

Figure 6 Main components and chips on the front of Tesla's radar

On the reverse side we see TI’s AWR6843, a single-chip 60-64GHz automotive radar sensor that integrates DSP, MCU and radar accelerator.

Figure 7 Main components and chips on the back of Tesla's radar

Summary: Indeed, as future automakers gain a deeper understanding of automotive electronics, and as auto chip companies continue to simplify their solutions, this link in the middle has been skipped. Based on what I have seen, Tesla fired the first shot in millimeter-wave radar.