Bitsensing announced today that it has signed an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with Zeta Mobility and KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) Autonomous Vehicles and Embedded Systems (AVE) Lab to advance and commercialize AI-powered 4D imaging radar technology for the automotive sector. The MOU aims to leverage each party’s strengths to co-develop a real-time, embedded solution that enhances the performance of “one of the most critical sensors” for autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance systems.

The three organizations will pursue phased cooperation—including joint R&D, performance validation and field testing, and technical advancement—to drive real-world adoption of AI-based 4D imaging radar in the automotive industry. Under the agreement, Bitsensing will provide its high-performance 4D imaging radar hardware platform, Zeta Mobility will offer large-scale automotive datasets and embedded AI expertise, and KAIST AVE Lab will contribute AI algorithms based on radar signal processing and sensor fusion.

Thanks to radar’s inherent robustness in rain, snow, and fog, the partners say the technology ensures consistent performance under adverse weather conditions, making it indispensable for the safety and reliability of autonomous vehicles. Unlike conventional radar, 4D imaging radar captures data not only distance, velocity, and direction but also elevation, enabling more accurate detection and classification of objects in complex environments. Through the collaboration, the partners expect to significantly improve the recognition and classification accuracy of vehicles, pedestrians, and infrastructure on the road.

“4D imaging radar is a key sensor for autonomous driving that demands both high precision and all-weather reliability,” said Jae-Eun Lee, CEO of Bitsensing.

Founded in 2018 in South Korea by Lee, Bitsensing has raised a total of $52 million in funding to bring “radar everywhere,” with a Series B round announced in June 2024 raising $25 million from investors including the Korea Development Bank, HL Mando Corp., Industrial Bank of Korea, Aju Capital, Life Asset Management, and SCL Investment.

In the automotive sector, the company’s imaging radar is being developed to transform how vehicles understand their surroundings by providing high-resolution 4D imaging. Its unique array patterning technique and radar signal processing algorithms are engineered to deliver ultimate reliability and a range of more than 300 m (984 ft). In addition, its advanced corner radar provides a surround detection solution for vehicle systems with a claimed 50% advancement in detection range compared to conventional radar.

In December, the company announced an MOU with NXP Semiconductors to offer high-performance, scalable radar systems combining NXP’s advanced radar chipsets with Bitsensing’s innovations in radar software. The MOU with NXP is said to mark a significant milestone in Bitsensing’s journey toward delivering radar solutions not only for safer and smarter vehicles but also for applications in traffic monitoring, healthcare, and robotics.

The next-generation radar solutions will support customers with pre-development and accelerate the overall development time. Lead customers have already started evaluations with pre-developed samples based on NXP’s SAF85xx automotive radar one-chip family for 4D imaging radar, front radar, and corner radar that address advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles, traffic insight monitoring sensors for smart city traffic monitoring radar for the connected urban environment, and wellness radar for sleep monitoring applications.

For the new MOU, the combination of Bitsensing’s proprietary radar expertise with the AI and dataset capabilities of KAIST AVE Lab and Zeta Mobility is a major step forward in bringing next-generation radar solutions to market, according to Lee.

“This partnership, through which specialized institutions collaborate to solve technological challenges and develop world-class solutions, is extremely meaningful,” added Hyunseok Lee, CEO of Zeta Mobility. “Zeta Mobility will leverage our embedded AI expertise to contribute significantly to advancing and commercializing autonomous driving technologies.”

Since its founding in 2024, Zeta Mobility has specialized in 4D radar-based perception AI and sensor fusion technologies. The autonomous driving startup has participated in a 4D radar data generation AI project conducted by the KAIST AVE Lab and Hyundai Motor Co., and it is contributing to the development of open-source autonomous driving platforms through an MOU with the Autoware Center of Excellence.

“This agreement is particularly significant as it represents collaboration among institutions that possess core technologies essential for developing artificial intelligence for 4D radar,” said Professor Seung-Hyun Kong of the AVE Lab at the Cho Chun Shik Graduate School of Mobility at KAIST. “Through this partnership, we aim to lead the world in developing and commercializing advanced AI-embedded 4D radar systems.”

Since 2021, KAIST’s AVE Lab has focused on developing essential AI technologies for autonomous driving and advancing system integration. It has led pioneering research on 4D radar, culminating in the creation of the widely shared K-Radar Dataset used by universities and companies around the world. It is actively conducting research on decision-making and control AI, as well as high-precision localization technologies for autonomous vehicles.