A sensor assembly for autonomous vehicles includes a side mirror assembly configured to mount to a vehicle. The side mirror assembly includes a first camera having a field of view in a direction opposite a direction of forward travel of the vehicle; a second camera having a field of view in the direction of forward travel of the vehicle; and a third camera having a field of view in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of forward travel of the vehicle. The first camera, the second camera, and the third camera are oriented to provide, in combination with a fourth camera configured to be mounted on a roof of the vehicle, an uninterrupted camera field of view from the direction of forward travel of the vehicle to a direction opposite the direction of forward travel of the vehicle.

A vehicle generates a city-scale map. The vehicle includes one or more Lidar sensors configured to obtain point clouds at different positions, orientations, and times, one or more processors, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform registering, in pairs, a subset of the point clouds based on respective surface normals of each of the point clouds; determining loop closures based on the registered subset of point clouds; determining a position and an orientation of each of the subset of the point clouds based on constraints associated with the determined loop closures; and generating a map based on the determined position and the orientation of each of the subset of the point clouds.

A method for operating a radar system (210) in a vehicle (201), the method including establishing a wireless communication link (245) to a radio base station (250) in a wireless communication network (260), requesting a time-frequency resource (420, 430) for communicating with a network node (270) via the radio base station (250), receiving a transmission grant from the radio base station (250) for communicating with the network node (270) using the time-frequency resource (420, 430), transmitting a communications signal (245) in the time-frequency resource, and transmitting a radar signal (235) in the time-frequency resource.

Provided herein is a system and method to determine a three-dimensional heading of a target. The system includes a radar sensor that obtains a three-dimensional snapshot of radar data comprising Doppler velocities and spatial positions of a plurality of detection points of a target, one or more processors, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the system to perform conducting a first estimation of a three-dimensional heading of the target based on the spatial positions; conducting a second estimation of the three-dimensional heading of the target based on the Doppler velocities; and obtaining a combined estimation of the three-dimensional heading of the target based on a weighted sum of the first estimation and the second estimation.

Embodiments herein can determine an optimal route for an autonomous electric vehicle. The system may score viable routes between the start and end locations of a trip using a numeric or other scale that denotes how viable the route is for autonomy. The score is adjusted using a variety of factors where a learning process leverages both offline and online data. The scored routes are not based simply on the shortest distance between the start and end points but determine the best route based on the driving context for the vehicle and the user.

The invention relates to a method for determining an occupancy status of a parking bay, wherein a vehicle is moved along a street segment with at least one parking bay and the vehicle has a distance sensor as well as a sensor for satellite-based location and time determination. Furthermore, static parking information on the position of the parking bays in a street segment and parking information on the parking bays are on hand. By means of distance and location data projected distance data are produced which each indicate a distance datum of the distance sensor to the next object in the sensor direction at a point of the street of the street segment at the parking bay. By means of these projected distance data a standard distance is ascertained. Subsequently, for each point of a parking bay the determination is made if this is unoccupied by comparing the distance datum with the standard distance plus a delta. An area of a parking bay is determined as one or several vacant parking spaces if the rounded-down quotient of the length of the adjoining contiguous unoccupied points to the length of an average parking space is 1 or greater.

A radar device for a vehicle, according to an embodiment of the present invention, comprises: a case; a first printed circuit board (PCB) that is accommodated in the case and has a plurality of antenna arrays and an integrated circuit (IC) chip that are formed thereon, wherein the IC chip is connected to the plurality of antenna arrays; and a radome that is coupled to the case and covers the first printed circuit board, wherein the radome includes: a cover facing the first printed circuit board; a first wall connected to the cover surface; and a second wall connected to the cover and facing the first wall, wherein the internal angle between the cover and the first wall and the internal angle between the cover and the second wall are formed to be greater than 90° and less than 180°.

A sensor assembly can include a housing that includes a view pane and a mounting feature configured to replace a trailer light of a cargo trailer of a semi-trailer truck. The sensor assembly can also include a lighting element mounted within the housing to selectively generate light, and a sensor mounted within the housing and having a field of view through the view pane. The sensor assembly can also include a communication interface configured to transmit sensor data from the sensor to a control system of the self-driving tractor.

A situational awareness system for a vehicle comprising a cyber-physical system, wherein the situational awareness system is configured to generate an imaging dataset for processing by the cyber-physical system for enabling semi-autonomous or autonomous operational mode of the vehicle, wherein the situational awareness system includes a sensory system with a first electro-optical unit for imaging the surroundings of the vehicle, a second electro-optical unit configured for imaging a ground area in a direct vicinity of the vehicle, a radar unit for detecting objects, and a third electro-optical unit for object identification, wherein the situational awareness system further includes a data synchronization system configured to synchronize the imaging dataset obtained by means of each unit of the sensory system, wherein the data synchronization system is configured to provide the synchronized imaging dataset to the cyber-physical system of the vehicle.

Example embodiments described herein involve determining three dimensional data representative of an environment for an autonomous vehicle using radar. An example embodiment involves receiving radar reflection signals at a radar unit coupled to a vehicle and determining an azimuth angle and a distance for surfaces in the environment causing the radar reflection signals. The embodiment further involves determining an elevation angle for the surfaces causing the radar reflection signals based on phase information of the radar reflection signals and controlling the vehicle based at least in part on the azimuth angle, the distance, and the elevation angle for the surfaces causing the plurality of radar reflection signals. In some instances, the radar unit is configured to receive radar reflection signals using a staggered linear array with one or multiple radiating elements offset in the array.