Vayyar Offers Full-Cabin Monitoring with One Radar-On-Chip

By Tiera Oliver

Associate Editor

Embedded Computing Design

March 25, 2021

News

Vayyar Offers Full-Cabin Monitoring with One Radar-On-Chip

Vayyar developed the world’s first automotive sensor that covers the entire cabin of any passenger vehicle, with a single Radar-on-Chip (RoC).

Given the 60% spike in global consumer demand for SUVs over the past five years, Vayyar’s production-ready in-car sensor is designed to cover up to three rows. It is also designed to accommodate a number of cars with sunroofs, thanks to uniform rear ceiling installation. Monitoring every seat, all footwells, and the open trunk area, the sensor offers a safety solution to protect vehicle occupants.

Per the company, Vayyar’s full-cabin sensor is fully operational in all lighting and weather conditions and maintains privacy at all times, since no cameras are involved. The wide field of view and resolution provided by the 48 transceivers in each Vayyar sensor enables the platform to support multiple advanced applications, while replacing single-function sensors.

Given the cabin size of SUVs and the fact that parents of young children comprise the majority of SUV owners, three-row coverage is an ideal aspect of in-car sensing. Alternative solutions require two to three single-function sensors to cover the entire cabin of an SUV, driving up the cost and effort associated with providing safety in larger vehicles.

According to the company, vehicles with sunroofs have also presented challenges in terms of in-cabin sensor positioning. With no option of fitting a sensor in the center of the ceiling, manufacturers had to make do with sub-optimal installation options. Now OEMs can install just one Vayyar sensor in the rear ceiling area, covering the entire interior of any passenger vehicle, with or without a sunroof. 

Vayyar offers OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers a flagship Child Presence Detection (CPD) and Seat Belt Reminder (SBR) combo for meeting Euro NCAP's 2023 and 2025 safety scoring protocols. The platform does so by detecting occupants, classifying children and adults, and detecting posture and position.

The robust, automotive-grade solution also goes beyond just CPD and SBR. Addressing Euro NCAP safety requirements, Vayyar’s AEC-Q100 qualified and ASIL-B compliant platform provides vehicles up to 10 in-cabin points for 2023 onwards.

By providing multifunctionality on a single-chip platform, the company enables automakers to move past the one sensor per function legacy industry approach. Instead, one sensor supports a range of safety applications, reducing both complexity and costs.

A 4D Point Cloud Application Programming Interface (API) provided by Vayyar’s platform enables customers to develop and deploy additional safety features over its point cloud layer. These may include Occupant Status (OS), optimized airbag deployment and dynamic disabling, seat belt pre-tensioning, eCall, gesture recognition, out-of-position detection, intruder detection, and other applications.

The platform also supports over-the-air (OTA) software updates, allowing automakers to scale to new features even after a vehicle has left the production line. This provides added value by reducing development risks and time to market.

For more information, visit: https://vayyar.com/

Tiera Oliver, Associate Editor for Embedded Computing Design, is responsible for web content edits, product news, and constructing stories. She also assists with newsletter updates as well as contributing and editing content for ECD podcasts and the ECD YouTube channel. Before working at ECD, Tiera graduated from Northern Arizona University where she received her B.S. in journalism and political science and worked as a news reporter for the university’s student led newspaper, The Lumberjack.

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