▲ Attendees at CES 2022 test drive the Hyundai Mobis autonomous driving concept car M.VISION 2GO.
I'm watching. (Photo courtesy of Hyundai Mobis)

$4 million strategic investment in US-based Zendar
Strengthening future competitiveness by securing sensor technology

Hyundai Mobis, which is working to enhance its sensor technology competitiveness to conquer the autonomous driving market, is moving in earnest to secure next-generation, high-performance radar sensor technology capable of implementing Level 4 or higher autonomous driving.

Hyundai Mobis announced on the 27th that it has made a strategic investment in Zendar, a US company, to develop an 'imaging radar' that can significantly improve object recognition accuracy through high-resolution images.

The investment amount is $4 million, and Hyundai Mobis is the first company to invest in Zendar at the corporate level.

Hyundai Mobis has secured autonomous driving sensor technology ranging from cameras, radar, and lidar, and is collaborating with Velodyne and Motional (a joint venture with Aptiv) to advance related technologies.

In addition, Hyundai Mobis has also begun developing an 'imaging radar' optimized for fully autonomous vehicles of Level 4 or higher through strategic investment and technological collaboration with Zendar.

This technology, which is evaluated as a next-generation radar that is differentiated from existing radars, can implement high-resolution images by integrating data obtained from radars located at the front, rear, and corners in the central processing unit (ECU) and processing the signals.

In particular, unlike the existing method of individually processing data recognized by each radar, there is an advantage in that recognition accuracy can be significantly improved by integrating and utilizing data generated from multiple radar sensors.all.

It is expected that this will contribute to the popularization of autonomous driving through high performance and reasonable price comparable to that of lidar sensors.

Zendar is recognized as a company with differentiated technological prowess in the field of imaging radar based on its proprietary radar fusion algorithm.

Hyundai Mobis plans to secure technology by combining Zendar's integrated signal processing radar fusion technology with Hyundai Mobis' hardware design and software integration development capabilities.

Kim Young-bin, head of Hyundai Mobis' planning division, explained, "We will enhance our status as a leading company in mobility platforms that combine software and hardware by developing our own technologies as well as collaborating with global companies with diverse core technologies."

Meanwhile, 'imaging radar' is expected to be applicable to various industries, including automobiles, heavy equipment such as tractors and forklifts, and robotics.

Additionally, the imaging radar field is currently in the early stages of market development, but is expected to grow rapidly in the future.

According to French market research firm Yole Development, the automotive sensor market is expected to grow by more than 19% annually through 2025, while imaging radar is expected to grow by more than 124% annually.