Preface
“Quick Questions and Answers for Autonomous Driving” is a special edition of the beginner’s guide to autonomous driving technology. Here, I will summarize and answer many high-quality questions raised by readers in the responses and articles. These answers to high-quality questions will serve as a supplement and extension to autonomous driving technology.
Main Content
Question 1
Q: For the Lincoln MKZ used by many autonomous driving companies, is it a result of algorithm development by the modification company after obtaining the whole vehicle from the manufacturer or after cracking the control module and filling in the gap between the automatic driving control module and the original vehicle’s ECU?
If the manufacturer (regardless of whether it is a fuel vehicle manufacturer, electric vehicle manufacturer, or Tier1 supplier) opens up the vehicle’s relevant sensors, ECU, and other related things to autonomous driving companies, is it difficult for the modification of autonomous driving companies? Or where are the main challenges in modification?
A: The Lincoln MKZ was modified by AutonomouStuff, a provider of customized sensor and entire vehicle solutions for autonomous driving platforms. They provide customized sensor + entire vehicle solutions, and in addition to the MKZ, they also provide Ford Fusion, beach buggies, go-karts and other vehicle models. The founder of this company has some relationship with Ford, which is why they obtained the control of the MKZ’s line control system. More information about AutonomouStuff can be found in my previous article “Introduction to Autonomous Driving Technology (Part 1) | Baidu’s Pioneer in Autonomous Driving.”
If the underlying line control system can be opened up, it would be very beneficial for internet companies, and the difficulty of modification would be minimal, as long as the corresponding information on CAN is analyzed. However, OEMs and Tier1s generally do not open up this interface for third-party use, considering the safety of the entire vehicle.
Question 2
Q: Why is it necessary to use a LiDAR in addition to traditional ultrasound radar to achieve autonomous driving?
A: The detection distance of ultrasonic radar is only 3-5 meters. Common parking radars are ultrasonic radars, and ultrasonic radars can only be used for low-speed following in autonomous driving.
You are probably referring to millimeter wave radar. Millimeter wave radar can detect metal objects hundreds of meters away, but it provides very little information, only one target point and information about the distance and speed of the target. This means that I only know that there is a block of metal in front (the back of the car), but I cannot find out how wide or how high the block of metal is. Of course, there are also some target detection systems based on the point cloud returned by millimeter wave radar, but the accuracy is still relatively low. This makes autonomous driving strategies very conservative and unable to perform too complex autonomous driving functions.Markdown text:
激光雷达是发一或多条激光线出去，得到的信息是一条或多条线，有了线状信息，就可以知道有多宽，如果线束更多，可以通过聚类算法还原出一个面，有了面，自动驾驶系统策略就可以奔放很多。
English translated Markdown text:
Lidar sends one or multiple laser beams out, and obtains information in the form of one or multiple lines. With the linear information, the width of the object can be determined. If there are more laser beams, a 3D surface can be reconstructed through clustering algorithms. With the surface, the strategy of the autonomous driving system can be greatly improved.The second installment of the Q&A on autonomous driving technology is here! If you have more questions about autonomous driving technology, feel free to leave them in the comments section. They may be featured in future bonus episodes.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.