Maintaining performance of driver assistance systems and automated driving functions over the life cycle

At Advanced Driver Assist Systems (ADAS), and especially in the case of automated vehicles, the reliable functioning of sensors is absolutely prerequisite to safe mobility. But, for various reasons, sensor abilities to sense and interpret the surroundings can get lost about the lifetime of cars. Possible causes are ageing, fault, disassembly respectively assembly of sensors without adjustment, subsequently bonded wrap film, collisions and repairs. This paper presents the results of a study to the impact of body repair on radar sensors. Tested system was a Lane Change Assistants. The detection of vehicles is frequently carried out via radar sensors. To testing the functionality of ADAS and automated vehicles, test runs under real conditions were carried out. The results show, that body repairs can have a significant impact on sensor performance. Therefore, adequate repair methods and whose professional realization extremely important. In order to implement a professional repair clearly instructing in OEM repair manuals are extremely important. This information must be easily found for body shops, insurers and experts. In addition, repair and body shops are required to invest into employee training and qualification, adequate (manufacturer-specific and cost-intensive) adjustment devices (calibration targets) and diagnosis tools to execute a professional repair. Especially multibrand repair and body shops are affected by this challenge.