According to the data from ResearchInChina, during 2022-2023, the installations of NVS (night vision system) in new passenger cars in China went up at first and then down. From January to July 2022, the installations of NVS in new passenger cars in China was 13,300 sets, a like-on-like spurt of 141.9%; the full-year installations in 2022 reached up to 24,400 sets, jumping by 37.0% year on year; in the first seven months of 2023, the installations stood at 13,400 sets, up by 0.7% from the prior-year period, and the installation rate was 0.12%, on a par with 2022.
![红外夜视 1_副本.png](/UpLoads/Article/2023/红外夜视%201_副本.png)
Automotive infrared night vision systems can be divided into active and passive types. Active infrared night vision is also called near-infrared night vision; passive infrared night vision falls into far-infrared night vision and low-light-level night vision.
Near-infrared night vision uses a powerful infrared emitter to illuminate the object during operation and images the object with the infrared rays reflected back from the object;
Low-light-level night vision amplifies a small amount of visible light received, and finally collects the image and projects it onto the corresponding display;
Far-infrared night vision mainly uses the infrared radiation emitted by the object itself for imaging. It is also called thermal imaging system, enabled by a thermal imager.
![红外夜视 2_副本.png](/UpLoads/Article/2023/红外夜视%202_副本.png)
Infrared detector, an important upstream product in the industry chain, heads in the direction of small pixel size and low cost.
An infrared thermal imager is a product used to detect the infrared radiation from an object, and convert the temperature profile of the object into a video image after photoelectric conversion, electric signal processing and digital image processing.
![红外夜视 3_副本.png](/UpLoads/Article/2023/红外夜视%203_副本.png)
The core components of a thermal imager include lens, detector, following circuit and image processing software. Wherein, the infrared detector, also known as infrared focal plane detector, is an important part of a far-infrared night vision system, and is heading in the direction of small pixel size and low cost.
The pixel size of uncooled infrared chips in the industry has been reduced from the initial 35μm to the current mainstream 12μm, and even 10μm and 8μm products have been unveiled or developed. The pixel size tends to be smaller;
The advantage of small pixel size is that the smaller pixel size allows for chip size reduction, lowers chip cost, and further meets the requirements for miniaturization and integration of thermal imaging modules.
![红外夜视 4_副本.png](/UpLoads/Article/2023/红外夜视%204_副本.png)
In terms of infrared technology, Raytron Technology, iRay Technology’s parent company, has expanded its 8μm product family, and has completed development of the prototype samples of the 1280×1024 new products; it has laid out the 10μm product family, and has trail-produced the 640×512 new products in small volume; in April 2023, it displayed IR-Pilot 1920X, its first automotive infrared thermal imager that packs an 8μm 1920×1080 infrared thermal imaging detector chip; in September 2023, it introduced an 8μm VGA (640×512) infrared thermal imaging detector chip. With these efforts, it promotes the development of global small-pixel infrared thermal imaging optics and image algorithms, facilitates the wide adoption of ultra-small pixel infrared focal plane detector chips in many new fields, and further cuts down the cost of automotive night vision systems.
Xuanyuan iDRIVE’s infrared detector application history and planning: used imported 25μm detectors in 2015; used the self-developed 25μm detector in ceramic packaging in 2018, with little improvement in resolution; used 12μm detectors in wafer-level packaging in 2021, with the resolution increased to 640×512; plan to use 10μm wafer PLCC packaging in 2024, with two resolutions: VGA and SXGA. It shows that the size of detectors is getting smaller, the process is getting more mature, the resolution is getting higher and the cost is getting lower.
![红外夜视 5_副本.png](/UpLoads/Article/2023/红外夜视%205_副本.png)
OEMs begin to integrate ADAS with infrared night vision technology.
Automotive night vision has begun to be integrated with ADAS. GAC Aion has adopted infrared sensing technology in its ADAS for the first time. The ADiGO Intelligent Driving System that integrates intelligent driving infrared sensing technology strengthens video capture and recognition capabilities in dark night, haze, and heavy rain environments. Combined with the existing LiDAR, radar and visible light camera, this system acts as an active driving assistance safety strategy that integrates night vision/thermal imaging. The integration of night vision with ADAS allows thermal imaging to output video signals that have clear outlines and are easy to recognize, and helps to transmit the data to ADAS as a supplement to the uploaded perception data of other environments. The development history is as follows:
In March 2022, GAC Aion announced that ADiGO will be equipped with intelligent infrared sensing technology;
In September 2022, Aion notified Xuanyuan iDRIVE of developing and trial-producing components and undertaking the task of manufacturing night vision cameras;
In July 2023, Aion Hyper GT, an ADAS-enabled production model integrated with infrared night vision technology, was available on market.
![红外夜视 6_副本.png](/UpLoads/Article/2023/红外夜视%206_副本.png)
The subsequent extended applications of infrared night vision in ADAS also include intersection perception, multi-sensor data fusion, BEV spatial feature construction, image feature fusion perception, perceptual positioning and SLAM, stereo infrared, etc.
![红外夜视 7_副本.png](/UpLoads/Article/2023/红外夜视%207_副本.png)
As concerns L4 autonomous driving, from Robotaxi nighttime road tests of Didi, AutoX, and WeRide, to DeepRoute.ai’s announcement of entering nighttime intra-city freight, it can be seen that there is great demand for night driving in the autonomous driving field. And driving safety at night makes infrared sensors an indispensable part.
Starting from January 3, 2023, Didi has increased its Robotaxi service hour to 24 hours. Didi's autonomous vehicles with the latest software and hardware are equipped with a variety of sensors including visible light, LiDAR and infrared thermal imaging, which can recognize traffic lights and traffic signs up to 300 meters away, and enable stable recognition in backlight and night scenarios and also accurate recognition of minor obstacles.
Chinese OEMs (Passenger Car) Going Overseas Report, 2024--Germany
Keywords of Chinese OEMs going to Germany: electric vehicles, cost performance, intelligence, ecological construction, localization
The European Union's temporary tariffs on electric vehicles in Chi...
Analysis on DJI Automotive’s Autonomous Driving Business, 2024
Research on DJI Automotive: lead the NOA market by virtue of unique technology route.
In 2016, DJI Automotive’s internal technicians installed a set of stereo sensors + vision fusion positioning syst...
BYD’s Layout in Electrification, Connectivity, Intelligence and Sharing and Strategy Analysis Report, 2023-2024
Insight: BYD deploys vehicle-mounted drones, and the autonomous driving charging robot market is expected to boom.
BYD and Dongfeng M-Hero make cross-border layout of drones.
In recent years,...
Great Wall Motor’s Layout in Electrification, Connectivity, Intelligence and Sharing and Strategy Analysis Report, 2023-2024
Great Wall Motor (GWM) benchmarks IT giants and accelerates “Process and Digital Transformation”.
In 2022, Great Wall Motor (GWM) hoped to use Haval H6's huge user base to achieve new energy transfo...
Cockpit AI Agent Research Report, 2024
Cockpit AI Agent: Autonomous scenario creation becomes the first step to personalize cockpits
In AI Foundation Models’ Impacts on Vehicle Intelligent Design and Development Research Report, 2024, Res...
Leading Chinese Intelligent Cockpit Tier 1 Supplier Research Report, 2024
Cockpit Tier1 Research: Comprehensively build a cockpit product matrix centered on users' hearing, speaking, seeing, writing and feeling.
ResearchInChina released Leading Chinese Intelligent Cockpit ...
Global and China Automotive Wireless Communication Module Market Report, 2024
Communication module and 5G research: 5G module installation rate reaches new high, 5G-A promotes vehicle application acceleration
5G automotive communication market has exploded, and 5G FWA is evolv...
ADAS and Autonomous Driving Tier 1 Suppliers Research Report, 2024 – Chinese Companies
ADAS Tier1s Research: Suppliers enter intense competition while exploring new businesses such as robotics
In China's intelligent driving market, L2 era is dominated by foreign suppliers. Entering era...
Automotive Gateway Industry Report, 2024
Automotive gateway research: 10BASE-T1S and CAN-XL will bring more flexible gateway deployment solutions
ResearchInChina released "Automotive Gateway Industry Report, 2024", analyzing and researching...
Global and China Electronic Rearview Mirror Industry Report, 2024
Research on electronic rearview mirrors: electronic internal rearview mirrors are growing rapidly, and electronic external rearview mirrors are facing growing pains
ResearchInChina released "Global a...
Next-generation Zonal Communication Network Topology and Chip Industry Research Report, 2024
The in-vehicle communication architecture plays a connecting role in automotive E/E architecture. With the evolution of automotive E/E architecture, in-vehicle communication technology is also develop...
Autonomous Delivery Industry Research Report, 2024
Autonomous Delivery Research: Foundation Models Promote the Normal Application of Autonomous Delivery in Multiple Scenarios
Autonomous Delivery Industry Research Report, 2024 released by ResearchInCh...
Global Autonomous Driving Policies & Regulations and Automotive Market Access Research Report, 2024
Intelligent driving regulations and vehicles going overseas: research on regional markets around the world and access strategies. "Going out”: discussion about regional markets aroun...
China Passenger Car HUD Industry Report, 2024
HUD research: AR-HUD accounted for 21.1%; LBS and optical waveguide solutions are about to be mass-produced. The automotive head-up display system (HUD) uses the principle of optics to display s...
Ecological Domain and Automotive Hardware Expansion Research Report, 2024
Automotive Ecological Domain Research: How Will OEM Ecology and Peripheral Hardware Develop? Ecological Domain and Automotive Hardware Expansion Research Report, 2024 released by ResearchInChina ...
C-V2X and CVIS Industry Research Report, 2024
C-V2X and CVIS Research: In 2023, the OEM scale will exceed 270,000 units, and large-scale verification will start.The pilot application of "vehicle-road-cloud integration” commenced, and C-V2X entere...
Automotive Intelligent Cockpit Platform Configuration Strategy and Industry Research Report, 2024
According to the evolution trends and functions, the cockpit platform has gradually evolved into technical paths such as cockpit-only, cockpit integrated with other domains, cockpit-parking integratio...
Analysis on Huawei's Electrification, Connectivity, Intelligence and Sharing,2023-2024
Analysis on Huawei's Electrification, Connectivity, Intelligence and Sharing: Comprehensive layout in eight major fields and upgrade of Huawei Smart Selection
The “Huawei Intelligent Driving Business...