SOURCE / COMPANIES
Huawei unveils plan for smart cars
Published: Aug 11, 2020 11:03 PM

People visit the booth of Chinese tech company Huawei at the 2019 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 25, 2019. (Xinhua/Guo Qiuda)

Huawei aims to develop cost-effective radars for smart cars, a top executive told a forum, as the Chinese manufacturer seeks a bigger role in the intelligent vehicle industry amid the ongoing China-US tech war.

The company is set to reduce the cost of radar sensors to $100 in the future with its advanced 5G technology, Wang Jun, an executive with the Huawei smart-car solutions business unit, said at the China Automotive Blue Book Forum in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province on Tuesday.

He revealed that Huawei has an optoelectronic technology research center based in Wuhan, with a total of more than 10,000 employees involved in the research, and the goal is to develop 100-line laser radars in the short term.

Huawei will use ICT technology to create parts with better performance and lower prices. In the future, it plans to keep the cost of laser radars, a key component for intelligent vehicles to navigate and collect information on surroundings, as low as $200 or even $100 per unit, Wang said.

The company will also increase the scale infrastructure software development, which will help automakers to develop cars at a faster speed and accelerate their product iteration, Wang said.

Huawei established the smart-car solutions business unit last June, a move which came as the US government intensified the global ban on the company.

According to company information website Tianyancha, Huawei has revealed a number of patents in automatic driving and smart cars this month, including "a method and device for controlling the driving direction of smart cars" and "a method for identifying traffic lights."