Per reporter: Li Shuo Per editor: Fan Wenqing
At a time when high-level autonomous driving is in the ascendant, 4D imaging millimeter-wave radar is rapidly "going viral".
Recently, Shanghai Geometry Partners Intelligent Driving Co., Ltd., a supplier of overall solutions for autonomous driving, announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing, and this company has chosen to use 4D imaging millimeter-wave radar as the main sensor from the beginning of its establishment to develop L2~L4 level autonomous driving solutions in combination with other sensing systems.
In fact, this is not the only company aiming at 4D imaging millimeter-wave radar. At the 2022 International Consumer Electronics Exhibition (CES), a number of chip companies such as NXP, TI, and Mobileye have launched or updated their own imaging radar solutions, and millimeter wave radar system manufacturers Arbe and Zadar Labs have also brought their own imaging radar products. In terms of domestic manufacturers, technology companies such as Continental, Aptiv, Huawei and other technology companies have also launched 4D millimeter wave radar categories, and a number of emerging players such as Aoku, Suzhou Millimeter Wave, and An Zhijie have also begun to lay out in this field.
Why can 4D imaging millimeter-wave radar become the "new favorite" of the autonomous driving industry? What are its advantages over the previous perception radar?
Make up for the performance shortcomings of traditional millimeter-wave radar
4D imaging millimeter-wave radar can be seen as an upgraded version of the previous millimeter-wave radar.
It is understood that the traditional millimeter-wave radar emits a cone-shaped electromagnetic wave beam and detects the echo, so as to judge the relative distance, speed, angle and orientation of the car body and other objects, and then hand it over to the central processing unit for decision-making.
Image source: Visual China
In terms of detection range, traditional millimeter-wave radar can only detect three dimensions: distance, azimuth and speed. Due to the lack of ability to measure height, low angular resolution, sparse point clouds, and the neglect of static objects, traditional millimeter-wave radar is acceptable in autonomous driving assistance systems below L3 level, but it is not enough for higher-order autonomous driving.
On the basis of the original distance, orientation and speed, the 4D imaging millimeter-wave radar adds data analysis of the dimension of target height, which can realize the information perception of the four dimensions from "3D + speed", effectively analyze the contour, category and behavior of the target, and portray a more realistic environmental image. Relying on altimetry capabilities and point cloud images, 4D imaging millimeter-wave radar can preliminarily determine the position relationship between stationary objects and vehicles, avoiding safety hazards caused by simple filtering of still signals.
Not only that, the price of 4D imaging millimeter wave radar is between 100 and 150 US dollars, and the cost of mass production in the short and medium term is much lower than that of lidar. "It takes at least 5 years for the cost of lidar to go from a few thousand yuan to a few hundred yuan, so 4D imaging millimeter-wave radar can replace low-beam lidar to some extent." Huang Jianjun, president of Aoku Radar Asia Pacific, said.
Some people believe that with comprehensive performance and cost, 4D imaging millimeter-wave radar will quickly occupy an important position in L3-level automatic driving, unmanned autonomous parking and other scenarios, because these scenarios often pursue the ultimate cost performance, can not use lidar on a large scale, but also need to have some of the advantages of lidar such as stationary target detection, etc., and these are the advantages of 4D imaging millimeter wave radar.
CICC believes that the 4D imaging radar improves the performance of millimeter-wave radar in all directions, which is expected to make millimeter-wave radar one of the core sensors in the ADAS system and an important direction for the future development of millimeter-wave radar. It is estimated that by 2025, the size of China's automotive 4D imaging radar market is expected to reach $190 million, $360 million and $540 million under pessimistic, neutral and optimistic conditions, respectively, and the compound annual growth rate from 2022 to 2025 will be 34%, 64% and 88%.
Large-scale production still needs time
Although the comprehensive cost performance of 4D imaging millimeter wave radar is relatively high, there is no product that can really land on a large scale.
"As a vehicle-level safety part, 4D imaging millimeter-wave radar has a very long development cycle, and there must be enough time to complete the system design, test verification and other links. Usually, it takes 5 years to develop a radar, and if you take the route of a custom chip, it may take more time. Zhang Igong, chief technology officer of Chuhang Technology, said.
At the same time, there is no test equipment for 4D imaging millimeter wave radar in the industry, in other words, the industry ecological chain is not yet mature. Manufacturers often use traditional millimeter-wave radar test equipment to verify the performance of 4D imaging millimeter-wave radar products. However, the low resolution of traditional test equipment cannot verify whether the resolution of 4D imaging millimeter wave radar reaches 1 degree or less, which is crucial for whether the radar can distinguish objects such as cars and people at a closer distance.
"We can only rely on the road, with the truth value system, with the lidar to do the comparison." But in this case, if some of the basic performance of the product is wrong, such as antenna design, we simply can not detect it in the laboratory, can not do front-end testing, can not form a complete research and development closed loop. Chu Xuanyan, CEO of Chuhang Technology, predicted that it is expected to take 3 to 5 years for 4D imaging millimeter-wave radar to form a standardized and large-scale mass-produced product.
In addition, at the technical level, in the complex electromagnetic environment, the noise and other interference received by the millimeter wave radar are large, and in the pursuit of precision 4D imaging radar, how to deal with miscellaneous points and possible false warning noise is also a difficult point in the application of 4D imaging radar. With the increasing number of cars using millimeter-wave radar, the mutual interference between millimeter-wave radars will also increase, and anti-interference will also be a problem that subsequent 4D imaging radars must face.
"This year we see several OEMs ready to get on the car with 4D imaging millimeter-wave radar, which is the same as the lidar of a few years ago, once there is a large-scale application of the leading enterprises, the companies behind will quickly follow." Xi Jianjun said.
However, some insiders believe that 4D millimeter wave radar is only part of the automotive automatic driving sensor system, including optical sensors, and will cooperate with lidar and cameras in the future to promote driving safety at a lower cost and help realize the commercialization of autonomous driving technology.
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