The obstacles on the way to the autonomous car, once swept away with an optimistic wave of the hand in the speeches of manufacturers and equipment manufacturers, today resemble insurmountable walls. Recently, Luc Julia, an expert in artificial intelligence at Renault, was frankly pessimistic. “The fully autonomous car will never exist. And I am able to demonstrate it mathematically.” We are far from Ford’s promises, which announced in 2016 the marketing of a car without pedals and steering wheel in 2021… We are still waiting!
It must be said that there is always an obstacle in the way. First, there is the European regulation, which limits the speed in autonomous driving mode to 60 km/h. And the technical obstacles, either related to the software (it is impossible to foresee all the situations that could happen during a trip), or to the sensors. From now on, the effects of the announcement gave way to wisdom. Progress is gradual, step by step through five defined levels of automation. The next step, which is about to emerge, will be to let cars run without drivers in perfectly signposted environments (usually properly mapped highways whose markings are immaculate). This corresponds to level 3.
Expensive and weather-affected Lidars
Some brands, starting with Mercedes-Benz, already offer level 3 automated systems in markets where it is legally possible. But there are still many pitfalls, starting with the sensors. The cameras (which are currently Tesla’s only means of reading the road) can be easily disturbed by bad weather… Or mosquitoes! Radars, on the other hand, suffer from mediocre definition. Lidars remain, much more accurate. But they are currently very expensive, difficult to integrate into the bodywork and are also sensitive to weather conditions as they use laser beams.
A French start-up, Greenervawe, appears to have solved squaring the circle with what it calls 4D radars. The young shooter has been working for fifteen years on developing his technology, which he guarantees is not more expensive than current radars. The project has credit, to the point of having found the industrial company Plastic Omnium as a partner. The equipment manufacturer changed course a few years ago, seeking to go beyond the condition of a simple supplier of plastic parts, to become a supplier of first-class equipment, capable of manufacturing complete subassemblies, combined with technologies that contribute to the performance of the car. Thus, Greenervawe’s 4D radars will form part of the front panel, bringing together several sensors. And marketing is expected until 2026 or 2027.
Multiply the receiving antennas
More than a technological revolution in hardware, it is in the form of data processing that Greenerwave technology intends to make a difference. “Today, the sensors are gathered on a small surface (often hidden behind a logo or a flat plate in the middle of the grid, editor’s note),” explains Geoffroy Lerosey, co-founder of Greenerwave. “By concentrating the transmitters and, mainly, the receivers on a small surface, it is difficult to obtain a good resolution. That is why on-board systems today cannot separate two objects separated by an angle of less than 1 to 2 degrees.”
Greenervawe therefore multiplies the receiving antennas across the width of the front face. “By using a larger reception area, it is possible to better interpret the wave feedback, thanks to the different angles of arrival at the various antennas. This allows us to increase the resolution ten times, similar to that of a lidar… At a moderate additional cost. In fact, the signal processing electronics are identical to a conventional system, and the antennas are very reasonably priced.”
With their association, Plastic Omnium and Greenerwave therefore hope to significantly improve the performance of automated steering systems. At first, innovation will be reserved for cutting-edge models, with small series production necessarily more expensive than existing systems. But the ever-increasing demand for driver assistance systems, particularly under regulatory constraints, promises a bright future for this technology.