Abstract
Traffic Environment Sensing is known as a system which observes the environment of vehicles with different types of sensors (Ranging = Ultrasonics, Radar, Lidar and / or Vision = CCD-, CMOS-, thermal Camera, IR-diodes), analyze the signals and either inform / warn the driver (passive Systems) or take partial control over the vehicle dynamics (active Systems). Current applications are Parking and Back up assistance, Adaptive
Cruise Control, Night vision and Lane departure warning. They are all stand alone driver assistance systems using only their own sensor information. Next generations who will be more and more active, need to combine signals from different kind of sensors to achieve the requested area of surveillance and the necessary redundancy. This article presents first the evolution of Ultrasonic Parking Assistance (UPA) and then describes the next steps towards 360° Environment Sensing. Different kind of sensors are used for Short range -,
Medium range - and Long range applications. The main focus here is on Short range applications.