The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) has selected Continental to supply its ARS540 4D imaging radar sensors for integration into the Dallara AV-21 which is stated to be the world’s fastest autonomous race car.
The IAC has been designed to bring together public-private partnerships and academic institutions to challenge university students to design and develop a new automated vehicle software capable of running fully autonomous race cars.
“Our 4D imaging radar is a product technology benchmark that offers customers, and now IAC operators, the best performance to achieve their automated driving functions,” said Vinh Tran, head, Autonomous Mobility Business Area, Continental North America. “Continental’s 4D radar sensors act as the eyes and ears of the IAC race cars and are a perfect fit for high-speed autonomous performance.”
Continental’s 4D imaging radars, which were launched in 2021, work to figure out an object’s location in terms of range, azimuth, elevation and relative speed to provide detailed information about the driving environment. Previous, earlier solutions were only capable of capturing speed and azimuth.
Through its collaboration with partners such as Continental, the IAC aims to increase safety and performance within motorsport and other commercial transport sectors.
“Continental has its sights set on the future of mobility, and that includes those who create new automotive technologies,” said Tran. “We are proud to sponsor not just the IAC but to support the many students who are achieving autonomous mobility.”
“Partnerships like the one we have with Continental allow us to push the limits for the entire autonomous community,“ said Paul Mitchell, president, Indy Autonomous Challenge. “Our teams are working to solve real-world problems and they need state-of-the-art technology like Continental’s 4D radar to help them reach the next level of autonomous achievement and speed the commercialization of fully autonomous vehicles and deployments of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) across the board.”
The next IAC competition, the Autonomous Challenge at CES, will take place on January 7 at CES 2023 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.