A radar apparatus includes a signal generation unit and a temperature sensing means. The signal generation unit is arranged to generate radar signals at an output power and has an output for the radar signals. The temperature sensing means has an output and is arranged to produce an output signal indicative of a temperature of at least part of the radar apparatus. The output of the temperature sensor is coupled to the signal generation unit. The signal generation unit is configured so the output power is a first power when the output signal is indicative of a temperature within a first temperature range and is a second power lower than the first power when the output signal is indicative of a temperature within a second temperature range higher than the first temperature range.

The technology relates to enhancing the operation of autonomous vehicles. Extendible sensors are deployed based on detected or predicted conditions around a vehicle while operating in a self-driving mode. When not needed, the sensors are fully retracted into the vehicle to reduce drag and increase fuel economy. When the onboard system determines that there is a need for a deployable sensor, such as to enhance the field of view of the perception system, the sensor is extended in a predetermined manner. The deployment may depend on one or more operating conditions and/or particular driving scenarios. These and other sensors of the vehicle may be protected with a rugged housing, for instance to protect against damage from the elements. And in other situations, deployable foils may extend from the vehicle's chassis to increase drag and enhance braking. This may be helpful for large trucks in steep descent situations.

This invention relates in general to the field of safety devices, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to systems and methods for providing advanced warning and risk evasion when hazardous conditions exist. In one embodiment, a vicinity monitoring unit is provided for monitoring, for example, oncoming traffic near a construction zone. In some embodiments, the vicinity monitoring unit may be mounted onto a construction vehicle to monitor nearby traffic and send a warning signal if hazardous conditions exist. In some embodiments, personnel tracking units may be worn by construction workers and the personnel tracking units may be in communication with the vicinity monitoring unit. In some embodiments, a base station is provided for monitoring activities taking place in or near a construction site including monitoring the locations of various personnel and vehicles within the construction site.

In one embodiment, a set of LIDAR images representing LIDAR point cloud data captured by a LIDAR device of an ADV at different points in time is received. For each of the LIDAR images, a perception method is utilized to determine a location of an obstacle captured in the LIDAR image in a local coordinate system. The LIDAR image is transformed using a coordinate converter (e.g., a LIDAR to GPS coordinate conversion logic or function) from the local coordinate system to a global coordinate system. The coordinate converter is optimized based on the transformed LIDAR images by adjusting one or more parameters of the coordinate converter and the above operations are iteratively performed to obtain a set of optimal parameters. The optimized coordinate converter can then be utilized to process subsequent LIDAR images during autonomous driving at real-time.

To provide a vehicle detection system capable of detecting a preceding vehicle traveling ahead of an own vehicle based on a position of an object by using an electromagnetic wave sensor while suppressing erroneous detection, an ECU determines if first and second positions detected by a millimeter wave radar are included in the same vehicle. The ECU designates calculated information of the preceding vehicle detected based on the first position as a calculation result if it determines that detection of the preceding vehicle is made based on the first position. The ECU uses calculated information of the preceding vehicle detected based on the second position as the calculation result when it determines that detection of the vehicle is not made based on the first position but the first and the second positions had been determined in the past as detected in the same vehicle.

A radar device includes a transmission part that transmits a radar wave which has been frequency-modulated such that one measurement cycle has a rising section in which a frequency increases and a falling section in which a frequency decreases, a reception part that derives respective beat signals of the rising section and the falling section, and a signal processor that performs a precipitation determining process on the basis of an analysis of the beat signals. In the precipitation determining process, in the absence of objects other than precipitation objects from a transmission range of the radar wave, it is determined whether a spectral similarity of the frequency spectra of the rising and falling section with precipitation reference spectra is not less than a threshold, and if the spectral similarity is not less than the threshold as a result of the determination, it is determined that precipitation is present.

Disclosed is a driver supporting device including: a warning timing control unit for setting a timing at which to output warning data in accordance with the existence or non-existence of a passenger when it is determined that a warning target which possibly collides with a driver's vehicle exists ahead of the driver's vehicle, and a warning data outputting unit for outputting the warning data in accordance with the timing set by the warning timing control unit.

A deceleration detection apparatus including an object detection device that detects an object around a subject vehicle, a rainfall detection device that detects a rainfall state around the subject vehicle, a brightness detection device that detects a brightness around the subject vehicle, and an electronic control unit including a microprocessor and a memory connected to the microprocessor. The microprocessor is configured to perform determining whether a forward vehicle traveling in front of the subject vehicle decelerates, based on an amount of change in a vehicle speed of the forward vehicle detected by the object detection device, a lighting state of a brake lamp of the forward vehicle detected by the object detection device, the rainfall state detected by the rainfall detection device, and the brightness detected by the brightness detection device.

An intelligent ultrasonic system may include: a camera sensor unit configured to take an image of a road ahead of a driving vehicle; an ultrasonic signal input unit configured to receive an ultrasonic signal sensed through one or more ultrasonic sensors mounted on the vehicle; a feature extraction unit configured to extract a feature of the received ultrasonic signal; a data collision unit configured to collect one or more data related to a surrounding situation of the road on which the vehicle is driven; and a control unit configured to divide the surrounding situation into two or more classes based on the one or more data collected through the data collection unit, and change or reset an existing parameter to a parameter corresponding to any one class of the classes when the surrounding situation corresponds to the one class or is changed to the one class.

An illustrative example embodiment of a computer implemented method for estimating a vertical profile of a road in front of or behind a host vehicle includes monitoring a detection point at a surrounding or preceding vehicle by a sensor on the host vehicle, determining at least one value for a height of the detection point with respect to a reference level at the host vehicle based on the elevation angle of the detection point, and estimating the vertical profile of the road based on the at least one value for the height of the detection point. An estimation of a height of the object with respect to a road surface may be corrected by the estimated vertical profile.