Automotive Radar Technology, The Roadmap
The Global automotive radar market was valued at US$ 3,094.53 Million in 2018. Passenger vehicle are expected to dominate the adoption of Radar technology for safety and safe driving purpose during the forecast period 2019-2025. A technological innovation is transforming the automotive sector worldwide. The growth and development of advance driver assistance system application has enabled the development of autonomous driving technology. The major global automakers are spending heavily on research and development infrastructure and are constantly working on developing advance technologies to gain a strategic edge in the competitive business environment. There is a massive demand for ADAS technology in developed economies of U.S., Canada, and European region. Several companies operating in the region have made huge investment, strategic partnership, alliances, and raised fund for the development of autonomous car technology. Significant growth has been attributed to stringent government regulation, increasing adoption of ADAS technology, and rising demand of luxury vehicles. Tech companies and automakers are investing heavily in self-driving technology such as GM, Volkswagen, and Daimler among others are spending billions of dollars towards backing a range of Start-ups that are centric in building technology and services for automated driving. As per the UMI,
Some of the major private company initiative to the Automotive Radar technology at global level are listed below:
- GM is investing US$ 500 Million in Lyft (an on-demand transportation company based in San Francisco, California. It develops, markets and operates the Lyft car transportation mobile app). General Motors (GM) made a billion-dollar investment in 2016 to purchase cruise automation (Company of semi-autonomous vehicle kit) to speed up its self-driving car concept. Furthermore, recently ford has announced that it would spend US$ 40 Billion on electric cars, autonomous driving and new mobility services by the end of 2022
- Volkswagen announced an investment of US$ 180 million into Chinese tech company Mobvoi to develop and implement artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in cars, and ford pumping US$ 1 billion in Pittsburgh based Argo AI to build driverless cars
- The Google of China Baidu, a tech company is also developing auto drive vehicle and is planning to invest more than US$ 1 billion in autonomous “Apollo Driving “fund. It is also pursuing the development of computer vision and other necessary technologies for the automated driving
- Japanese automakers including Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Subaru among others, announced an investment of more than US$ 25 billion during FY 2017-18 for development of next generation vehicle technology such as autonomous driving, advance driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and connectivity features. Toyota is also investing in Japanese start-ups to compete in the autonomous car race. Toyota made an investment of US$D 9.1 million in the initial public offering of Uenoyama’s firm, PKSHA Technology Inc., which is developing software that could help cars in communicating with drivers
- Moreover, the strategic alliance of auto makers Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi is planning to invest up to US$ 200 Million in venture funds, which would finance new developments in electrification, autonomous vehicle, connectivity and artificial intelligence. By 2020, the alliance is planning to launch fully autonomous vehicle on highways
Germany is expected to be have the largest share of market in the European region due to the presence of considerable number of premium automotive brands and electronic equipment manufacturers
- BMW is planning to offer autonomous driving vehicle by 2021, thereby focussing on its strategic alliance between Mobileye and Intel to produce sensors and hardware needed for autonomous driving technology. BMW’s i next is an electric and fully autonomous vehicle, expected to arrive in 2021 will be equipped with autonomous features such as lane keeping assist, side collision protection, automated parking and others
- In 2016, Stuttgart based company Robert Bosh has realized automated driver assistance system which is expected to generate Euro 1 billion in annual sales. The technology driven trend towards more fuel efficient and safer cars has helped it to sell more of its system such as radar and video sensors
- Denso Corporation plans to accelerate the overall adoption of LiDAR and driver monitoring technologies in advance driver assistance systems, key technologies used in automation. The company has invested in Trilumina, an innovative semiconductor laser technology company that focuses on providing light sources for LiDAR and interior illumination products. The strategic investment enables company to gain broader access to the automotive market
- Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd announced a strategic partnership with TTTech, a global leader in the field networking and safety controls. With the collaboration, it is also planning to invest US$ 300 million in their Samsung Automotive Innovation Fund (SAIF), for developing next generation transport mobility system. Moreover, Samsung US$ 8 billion acquisition of HARMAN (Leader in Connected Car technology), is another significant step of the company to enter the technology driven automotive sector
- Between 2009 and 2015, Google spent ~US$ 1.1 billion in developing self-driving software and hardware for Autonomous car. Alphabets Waymo is among the pioneer pushing self-driving vehicles out into real world testing and is first to put fully self-driving cars on US roads without a safety driver
- In 2014, Tesla motor started introducing advance autopilot software features, such as the ability to steer within a lane and change lanes on the highway. Recently, it has introduced autonomous cars which can be commanded through smartphones to drive in, park, and shut themselves
- Chipmaker NVidia has partnered with Uber and Volkswagen as it aims to boost its presence in the driverless car industry. For example, Volkswagen recently announced that it would be using NVidia’s drive to enhance artificial intelligence features along with gesture control and language processing
- In 2016, Mercedes Benz was the leading luxury brand in the world with USD 2.38 million sales, followed by BMW and Audi with the annual sale of USD 1.99 million and USD 1.89 million. There is mass adoption of ADAS technology across luxury vehicle which is stimulating the market growth. It is estimated that in 2016, some 50 million ADAS units would be produced globally and is projected to grow by 5.3 % in the coming year
Increasing adoption of self-driving technology will result in tremendous economic and societal benefits. According to BCG, the market for global autonomous vehicle is expected to reach US$ 42 billion with 12 million fully autonomous vehicles sold yearly. Moreover, by 2035, autos with autonomous vehicle feature are expected to capture 25 % of the new car market. Therefore, there is immense potential for tech and automakers to make investment in autonomous vehicle which is influencing the demand and growth of the market. These players have declared that their autonomous vehicles will hit the road very soon in the market. On the contrary, automotive equipment manufacturer and tech players have provided a building block for the development of autonomous vehicle.
Author: Tinku Rai