While LiDAR is all the rage in the new energy vehicle market, it doesn't mean millimeter-wave radar is being left behind.
Chinese auto parts supplier Huayu Automotive Systems recently released its latest 4D imaging millimeter-wave radar, which can determine the object's distance, speed, azimuth and other 2D planar information, in addition to the object's height and pitch angle, outlining the object's contour in 3D space.
Not only that, the radar also significantly improves the recognition accuracy and tiny object detection capability. "Our radar can even detect a can 180 meters away," the People's Daily quoted an unnamed Huayu source as saying on Monday.
The source also showed a video of a road test of the Huayu 4D radar, with a real-time dynamic point cloud showing the outline of a can.
(Source: The People's Daily)
"In the fourth quarter of this year, this imaging radar will have mass production capability. Currently, a number of customers are interested and are negotiating orders with us," the source said.
Compared to traditional millimeter-wave radar, the 4D imaging radar offers a significant improvement in real-time, accuracy horizontal angular resolution, and goniometric accuracy.
According to Huayu, the 4D imaging radar has a 50 percent improvement in detection distance compared to traditional millimeter-wave radar, and can detect objects such as vehicles up to 300 meters and pedestrians up to 150 meters or more.
Huayu's 4D imaging radar does not follow international manufacturers in using the more expensive Field Programmable Gate Array, but instead relies on a dedicated Microcontroller Unit (MCU) for the radar to achieve 4D imaging capabilities.
While achieving high performance, it is lower in cost, power consumption and smaller in size, allowing for faster time-to-market, according to Huayu.
"For radar, it is not necessarily better with higher hardware arithmetic," the source said, adding, "We rely on our years of accumulated radar R&D experience to maximize MCU performance."
Huayu entered the smart driving field in 2014. Its 77GHz forward radar has entered the mainstream models of passenger cars, and is the first local brand has received a large number of such orders.
After EV, LiDAR set to become next crowded industry in China
More From CnEVPost
