# Radars for Autonomous Driving: A Review of Deep Learning Methods and Challenges

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.09304 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.09304/

## Key facts

- Cited by 10 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 83 of its 144 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 15 Jun 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 83)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [Swin Transformer: Hierarchical Vision Transformer using Shifted Windows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.14030/) (2021)
- [Faster R-CNN: Towards Real-Time Object Detection with Region Proposal Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.01497/) (2015)
- [ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.0575/) (2014)
- [End-to-End Object Detection with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.12872/) (2020)
- [Masked Autoencoders Are Scalable Vision Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.06377/) (2021)
- [Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.00667/) (2022)
- [PointNet: Deep Learning on Point Sets for 3D Classification and Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.00593/) (2016)
- [Feature Pyramid Networks for Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.03144/) (2016)
- [nuScenes: A multimodal dataset for autonomous driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.11027/) (2019)
- [PointNet++: Deep Hierarchical Feature Learning on Point Sets in a Metric Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02413/) (2017)
- [SSD: Single Shot MultiBox Detector](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.02325/) (2015)
- [Scalability in Perception for Autonomous Driving: Waymo Open Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.04838/) (2019)
- [PointPillars: Fast Encoders for Object Detection from Point Clouds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.05784/) (2018)
- [Multi-Task Learning Using Uncertainty to Weigh Losses for Scene Geometry and Semantics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.07115/) (2017)
- [VoxelNet: End-to-End Learning for Point Cloud Based 3D Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.06396/) (2017)
- [Objects as Points](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.07850/) (2019)
- [Center-based 3D Object Detection and Tracking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11275/) (2020)
- [Lift, Splat, Shoot: Encoding Images From Arbitrary Camera Rigs by Implicitly Unprojecting to 3D](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.05711/) (2020)
- [Simple Online and Realtime Tracking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.00763/) (2016)
- [ByteTrack: Multi-Object Tracking by Associating Every Detection Box](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.06864/) (2021)
- [DETR3D: 3D Object Detection from Multi-view Images via 3D-to-2D Queries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.06922/) (2021)
- [TransFusion: Robust LiDAR-Camera Fusion for 3D Object Detection with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.11496/) (2022)
- [Deep Layer Aggregation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06484/) (2017)
- [Class-balanced Grouping and Sampling for Point Cloud 3D Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.09492/) (2019)
- [BEVFusion: A Simple and Robust LiDAR-Camera Fusion Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.13790/) (2022)
- [FlowNet3D: Learning Scene Flow in 3D Point Clouds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.01411/) (2018)
- [MOTS: Multi-Object Tracking and Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.03604/) (2019)
- [Embracing Single Stride 3D Object Detector with Sparse Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.06375/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [Unleashing HyDRa: Hybrid Fusion, Depth Consistency and Radar for Unified 3D Perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.07746/) (2024)
- [Exploring Radar Data Representations in Autonomous Driving: A Comprehensive Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.04861/) (2023)
- [Radar and Camera Fusion for Object Detection and Tracking: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.19872/) (2024)
- [Radar-Guided Polynomial Fitting for Metric Depth Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.17182/) (2025)
- [Exploring Domain Shift on Radar-Based 3D Object Detection Amidst Diverse Environmental Conditions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06772/) (2024)
- [Class-Aware PillarMix: Can Mixed Sample Data Augmentation Enhance 3D Object Detection with Radar Point Clouds?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.02687/) (2025)
- [Uncertainty-Driven Radar-Inertial Fusion for Instantaneous 3D Ego-Velocity Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.14294/) (2025)
- [Robust Vision Systems for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles: Security Challenges and Attack Vectors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.09740/) (2026)
- [4D Radar Perception Algorithms for Autonomous Driving: A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.19216/) (2026)
- [STAR: Scene- and Task-Aware 4D Radar Preprocessing Towards End-to-End Cognitive Radar](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.24151/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Radar is a key component of the suite of perception sensors used for safe and reliable navigation of autonomous vehicles. Its unique capabilities include high-resolution velocity imaging, detection of agents in occlusion and over long ranges, and robust performance in adverse weather conditions. However, the usage of radar data presents some challenges: it is characterized by low resolution, sparsity, clutter, high uncertainty, and lack of good datasets. These challenges have limited radar deep learning research. As a result, current radar models are often influenced by lidar and vision models, which are focused on optical features that are relatively weak in radar data, thus resulting in under-utilization of radar's capabilities and diminishing its contribution to autonomous perception. This review seeks to encourage further deep learning research on autonomous radar data by 1) identifying key research themes, and 2) offering a comprehensive overview of current opportunities and challenges in the field. Topics covered include early and late fusion, occupancy flow estimation, uncertainty modeling, and multipath detection. The paper also discusses radar fundamentals and data representation, presents a curated list of recent radar datasets, and reviews state-of-the-art lidar and vision models relevant for radar research. For a summary of the paper and more results, visit the website: autonomous-radars.github.io.