Hyperspectral Sensors and Autonomous Driving: Technologies, Limitations, and Opportunities

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Shah, Imad Ali, Li, Jiarong, George, Roshan, Brophy, Tim, Ward, Enda, Glavin, Martin, Jones, Edward, Deegan, Brian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Shah, Imad Ali
Li, Jiarong
George, Roshan
Brophy, Tim
Ward, Enda
Glavin, Martin
Jones, Edward
Deegan, Brian
author_facet Shah, Imad Ali
Li, Jiarong
George, Roshan
Brophy, Tim
Ward, Enda
Glavin, Martin
Jones, Edward
Deegan, Brian
contents Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) offers a transformative sensing modality for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) applications, enabling material-level scene understanding through fine spectral resolution beyond the capabilities of traditional RGB imaging. This paper presents the first comprehensive review of HSI for automotive applications, examining the strengths, limitations, and suitability of current HSI technologies in the context of ADAS/AD. In addition to this qualitative review, we analyze 216 commercially available HSI and multispectral imaging cameras, benchmarking them against key automotive criteria: frame rate, spatial resolution, spectral dimensionality, and compliance with AEC-Q100 temperature standards. Our analysis reveals a significant gap between HSI's demonstrated research potential and its commercial readiness. Only four cameras meet the defined performance thresholds, and none comply with AEC-Q100 requirements. In addition, the paper reviews recent HSI datasets and applications, including semantic segmentation for road surface classification, pedestrian separability, and adverse weather perception. Our review shows that current HSI datasets are limited in terms of scale, spectral consistency, the number of spectral channels, and environmental diversity, posing challenges for the development of perception algorithms and the adequate validation of HSI's true potential in ADAS/AD applications. This review paper establishes the current state of HSI in automotive contexts as of 2025 and outlines key research directions toward practical integration of spectral imaging in ADAS and autonomous systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_19905
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Hyperspectral Sensors and Autonomous Driving: Technologies, Limitations, and Opportunities
Shah, Imad Ali
Li, Jiarong
George, Roshan
Brophy, Tim
Ward, Enda
Glavin, Martin
Jones, Edward
Deegan, Brian
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Emerging Technologies
Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) offers a transformative sensing modality for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) applications, enabling material-level scene understanding through fine spectral resolution beyond the capabilities of traditional RGB imaging. This paper presents the first comprehensive review of HSI for automotive applications, examining the strengths, limitations, and suitability of current HSI technologies in the context of ADAS/AD. In addition to this qualitative review, we analyze 216 commercially available HSI and multispectral imaging cameras, benchmarking them against key automotive criteria: frame rate, spatial resolution, spectral dimensionality, and compliance with AEC-Q100 temperature standards. Our analysis reveals a significant gap between HSI's demonstrated research potential and its commercial readiness. Only four cameras meet the defined performance thresholds, and none comply with AEC-Q100 requirements. In addition, the paper reviews recent HSI datasets and applications, including semantic segmentation for road surface classification, pedestrian separability, and adverse weather perception. Our review shows that current HSI datasets are limited in terms of scale, spectral consistency, the number of spectral channels, and environmental diversity, posing challenges for the development of perception algorithms and the adequate validation of HSI's true potential in ADAS/AD applications. This review paper establishes the current state of HSI in automotive contexts as of 2025 and outlines key research directions toward practical integration of spectral imaging in ADAS and autonomous systems.
title Hyperspectral Sensors and Autonomous Driving: Technologies, Limitations, and Opportunities
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Emerging Technologies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.19905