TI Aims to Replace Big Radar Box in Cars With Tiny Chip
- Texas Instruments makes rare foray into touting technology
- Company is one of biggest suppliers to automotive industry
Traffic moves along the Olympic highway during the morning rush hour in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday, Jan. 22, 2016. South Korea is scheduled to release preliminary forth-quarter gross domestic product figures on Jan. 26.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/BloombergTexas Instruments Inc., one of the largest suppliers of semiconductors to the automotive industry, said a new range of radar chips is going to shake up the way that cars and industrial equipment see the world around them.
The current radar systems in vehicles -- systems that stop cars from running into those ahead of them -- are an integral part of attempts to build self-driving systems. Typically, they are boxes measuring inches across that house multiple components and require watts of power. A new range of chips from Texas Instruments, nine years in development, reduces that to a postage-stamp sized part, according to the Dallas-based company.