Spartan Radar builds cutting-edge software that improves radar performance for use in autonomous vehicles, making radar competitive with lidar, which has traditionally been used by auto manufacturers in self-driving vehicle applications. Spartan’s Biomimetic Radar™ mimics human perception processes for enhanced focus and context; proprietary algorithms dramatically speed up processing and reduce radar’s historic shortcomings, including lower resolution and false detections. Their software is almost entirely hardware agnostic and can be deployed on existing radar systems, potentially even in cars already on the road as an over-the-air system update. Spartan Radar Founder and CEO Nathan Mintz said:

“The automotive industry’s pivot to lower levels of automation makes radar more attractive than lidar. While showing lots of initial promise, lidar is failing to live up to all the hype, but the need for high resolution systems hasn’t gone away. The processing power finally exists to utilize advanced algorithms like super-resolution in real time to make radar a far better option for automakers.”

The funding will help Spartan scale its engineering team, build a full-scale prototype, conduct field tests, and acquire a greater share of the more than $32 billion advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) market, which is expected to reach $142 billion by 2027, according to Precedence Research. Suzanne Fletcher, General Partner at Prime Movers Lab, which invested in Mintz’s previous company Epirus said:

“What sets Spartan apart is its deep technical team of industry experts. There are only a few CEOs out there who can build two startups that redefine their industries, and we believe Nathan is one of those founders. The Spartan team’s deep experience with military radar will help them create cutting-edge improvements to autonomous vehicle applications.”

Spartan was founded in 2020 by Mintz, Chief Revenue Officer Blake Gasca, Dr. Theagenis Abatzoglou, Dr. Joe Zhou, and Chief Technology Officer Tyler Rather.

It’s important to note that the company rarely discusses future products, however, the fact that Apple is the world’s most valuable company directly makes us take their new products seriously. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in a research note that they continue to believe it’s a matter of when, not if, Apple enters the EV competition. But if we assume that it will actually happen, there are some interesting and important questions that need to be answered.

First of all, we all expect that the car will be a battery-powered electric vehicle. Given the company’s expertise in battery-powered consumer electronics, it makes sense that it would attempt to extend that expertise to cars. However, it is important to note that batteries for cars are much different from batteries for customer electronics.

There are also some speculations about the name of this potential new product. The only thing we know is that Apple’s code name for its car project was Project Titan (at least when it was cancelled around 2016).

We all know that there is not a cheap Apple product, however, there is not an estimated price for this car. The reports also suggest that Apple is in discussions with the company that manufactures Hyundai and Kia vehicles. What is more, it would make a more than $3 billion investment to assemble the vehicle at a plant in Georgia. Another possibility according to Evercore ISI analyst Chris McNally is that the contract manufacturer Magna International will be involved.

Most of the major automakers and numerous tech companies are working on self-driving vehicles, so it will be definitely a surprise if Apple isn’t doing the same. Analysts also suggest that the vehicle will be unveiled as soon as 2024, but it’s most likely that it won’t be ready by then.

The political environment is another factor that doesn’t have to be ignored. Dan Ives shared:

“Taking a step back, we believe this speaks to what we believe is a golden age of EVs on the horizon with a green tidal wave expected in the US under a Biden Administration and China seeing skyrocketing consumer demand across the board.”

We also don’t have to neglect the possibility that the project may fall apart again in the future. Perhaps the greatest risk is that Apple decides it’s just too expensive to dive into auto manufacturing, which is where cash can go to die. We all know that Apple won’t run out of money anytime soon, but shareholders will definitely not react positively to one potential money-losing venture.