Re:I have formally accepted the CEO job at Cruise once again
by sbierwagen on Monday February 28, 2022 @07:35PM
(#30507422)
That electrek article doesn't make it very clear, but Ka band radar is not new. Project Soli used it for gesture detection. Those roadside "speedometer" signs run at 20ghz. Etc.
You could imagine an AESA phased array at 60ghz. But there's a reason you only see those radars on aircraft or military vessels: you need hundreds or thousands of individual transmitters. That's why they cost millions of dollars and draw kilowatts of power, it's not (entirely) defense contractor featherbedding. So where's the cost savings over LIDAR? You can drop the number of radios to save money, but then you don't have meaningfully more resolution then any other automotive single-point radar.
You could imagine an AESA phased array at 60ghz. But there's a reason you only see those radars on aircraft or military vessels: you need hundreds or thousands of individual transmitters. That's why they cost millions of dollars and draw kilowatts of power, it's not (entirely) defense contractor featherbedding. So where's the cost savings over LIDAR? You can drop the number of radios to save money, but then you don't have meaningfully more resolution then any other automotive single-point radar.