Hardware Talk: Exploring Automotive Radar Technology

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Preface: Industry Upgrading—Automotive Radar

Intelligent driving is an irreversible industry trend. Led by leading automakers such as Tesla, Huawei, Ideal, and Xiaopeng, the development of automotive intelligence is accelerating;

With the gradual relaxation of L3 regulations and the continuous upgrading of algorithms, autonomous driving functions may become a new demand for consumers when buying cars.

Since 2023, the central and local governments have frequently issued policies to promote the development of the intelligent driving industry, and the industry has ushered in a qualitative change. Car companies continue to increase their investment in intelligence, and the domestic smart car industry has ushered in an explosive period. Both new forces and traditional brand car companies have increased their investment in intelligent driving, and the development of domestic intelligent driving has reached a new height;

From January to September 2023, the delivery volume of passenger cars equipped with NOA standard pre-installed equipment has reached 377,000 units, with a penetration rate of nearly 2.5%.

2024-2025 will be the starting point for the full outbreak of intelligent driving;

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Automotive radar—the sensory organ of intelligent driving

The intelligent driving system consists of three parts: perception, decision-making and execution, which have clear responsibilities for controlling the operation of the car.

The perception layer is used to replace human eyes and collect driving information involved in the driver's driving process through sensors (lidar, camera, millimeter wave radar, high-precision map, etc.), including road boundaries, vehicles, and pedestrians. It is called the "middle-level control system".

System".

The decision-making layer is used to replace the human brain. It calculates through the information obtained, formulates corresponding control strategies, and is responsible for path planning and navigation. It is called the "upper control system."

The execution layer replaces human hands and feet to execute the received control strategies, including acceleration, deceleration, steering, etc., and is also called the "bottom-level control system"

Among them, the perception layer is most relevant to hardware;

This article focuses on the perception layer and its related technologies;

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Comparison of Intelligent Driving Perception Categories

The principles, technical features, advantages and disadvantages of millimeter wave radar, laser radar and ultrasonic radar are listed in the table above;

Let’s briefly sort it out again:

(1) Camera: Imaging and obstacle recognition, but unable to measure distance and most affected by the environment;

(2) Millimeter-wave radar: strong range and speed measurement capabilities, not easily affected by the environment; weak imaging and obstacle recognition capabilities;

(3) Ultrasonic radar: close-range distance measurement and avoidance, which has always been present in traditional cars;

(4) LiDAR: ranging, point cloud imaging and obstacle recognition, but easily affected by rain and snow;

Take Huawei's autonomous driving solution as an example:

The transition from Huawei's ADS1.0 solution to ADS2.0 is a process of reducing costs and increasing efficiency. The number of various sensors has been reduced accordingly, and the pressure on the platform's computing power has also been reduced accordingly, from Ascend 810 to Ascend 610.

All four types of sensors are present, and intelligent driving is achieved through perception fusion algorithms;

At the beginning of 2024, Huawei has begun to push NCA in urban areas without maps nationwide (intelligent driving and navigation assistance functions in urban areas that do not rely on high-precision maps);

In the future, smart driving will continue to spread to mid-range and low-end models;

It will be the next era of "smartphone";

Postscript: Thoughts for Student Readers

For a long time, the employment directions of students majoring in electromagnetic fields/millimeter waves were mainly:

(1) Civilian communications;

(2) Communication chip design;

(3) Military industry;

With the explosive development of smart cars and autonomous driving, students of the above majors can examine the development prospects of autonomous driving companies based on their own characteristics;