REVOLUTION IN RADAR
Magna shows off technology
Magna International unveiled a significant upgrade on existing radar systems it believes could put mass numbers of fully autonomous vehicles on the road when it’s ready for mass production in 2020.
Building on the performance features of high-resolution military radar, the company’s new Icon Radar can detect objects in the four dimensions of speed, height, distance and depth.
“Radar has been around for decades, but we’ve borrowed from the military and adapted it for use in automobiles,” said Magna’s chief technical officer Swamy Kotagiri, who unveiled the radar at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week.
“It isn’t confused by a lot of competing signals, which will be the case when you have a lot of autonomous vehicles on the road.
“This radar is like going from an analog phone to a completely digital cellphone.”
What has Magna excited is Icon Radar gives extremely precise images up to 300 metres, can track more than 100 times as many objects as current radar and individually classifies them while scanning 50 times in the blink of an eye.
However, it’s the system’s ability to detect the subtleties between the light cast on different objects that is a real boost from a safety perspective.
“It has improved separation and safety,” Kotagiri said. “It can detect between light, dark and shaded objects.”
For example, the system can detect the darkened shape of a pedestrian emerging from behind the lights of oncoming traffic.
It can also detect the difference between vehicles, animals, road debris, speed bumps, pedestrian, guard rails and bicycles as well as static and stationary objects.
“It’s an advance in safety because it can detect small objects among large objects in motion,” Kotagiri said. “For example, it can detect a bicycle or a pedestrian weaving in and out of traffic.”
Kotagiri said the speed, distance and detail of the scans will also help the other autonomous functions in the car, such as emergency braking.
“It’s not a question of if autonomous vehicles are coming, it’s when,” Kotagiri said.
“We have them on cars driving around today. It’s going through the normal evaluation process for customers and our own rigorous process.
“We feel our radar will take autonomous cars to the next level. It’s an architectural platform where you could have long and medium range or you can have real shortrange reflection. It can play a role in any of those.”
By building on and improving existing technologies, Kotagiri said Magna has been able to keep the cost of Icon Radar at a competitive level.
“It’s in the realm of something we have today, so it’s not something that costs high and you hope comes down,” Kotagiri said. “It’s in the realm of economic viability of radar systems today.”
The compact nature of the radar also allows it to be located in a variety of places in any vehicle.
Kotagiri said Magna is talking to six automakers about using the radar in their autonomous vehicles. However, the company sees the product for use beyond the auto industry.
“We’re working with a startup (Texas-based Uhnder Inc.),” Kotagiri said. “Magna invested in it and wrote the specifications to define the product. The intent is (for use in other industries) but we’re starting with the auto industry.”