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Beamsteering Radar
“Electronically beamsteering radar will fundamentally change the way automakers think about sensors and their ADAS fusion,” said Tony Cannestra, director of Corporate Ventures at DENSO, who went on to say, “and Metawave has a head start in solving this complicated problem with a robust and modular technology platform.”
DENSO just lead the initial Series A funding for Metawave, a Palo Alto-based company that is developing what it says is “the first advanced analog beamsteering radar system.”
The SPEKTRA radar system, working with the AI system Metawave has also developed, named AWARE, is able to be able to precisely identify objects, vehicles at a range of 350 meters or more and pedestrians at some 200 meters.
Metawave says that its radar system can be used for adaptive cruise control, lane change assist and automatic emergency braking, and that it is operative under less-than-ideal climactic conditions.
It is worth noting than in Metawave’s initial funding round, which DENSO also participated in, Toyota, Hyundai and Infineon were among the investors. That round raised $17 million.
DENSO’s Cannestra, who is also on the company’s board, said, “We’ve been working with Metawave since its founding and are continually impressed with the innovation the team can deliver.”
It is interesting to note that not only is the company pursuing an automotive track, but it’s also developing 5G platforms for high-speed communications, which its AWARE AI system is also being deployed with. Presumably, that could be combined with the automotive undertakings, say in the form of vehicle-to-infrastructure setups.