An increasing number of today’s new cars sold come with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) installed. ADAS features include forward collision alerts, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warnings, adaptive cruise control, and blind-spot alerts. These features include keeping vehicles at a safe distance from one another, keeping vehicles centered in their lane, identifying other objects or pedestrians in the road, and bringing a car to a complete stop for emergencies. Sophisticated sensors and cameras enable these safety features to eliminate human error and make the road safer.

However, collisions are inevitable even in a safer driving environment as more ADAS-equipped vehicles crowd the streets.

So, what’s ahead for the automotive refinish industry in repairing ADAS-equipped vehicles?

The impact of certain metallic finishes
Automakers have installed ADAS in peripheral, easy-to-damage car parts like windshields and bumpers. These parts can house RADAR, a system that uses radio waves to detect people, cars, and other objects nearby, to enable some of these safety features.
Even after a low-speed collision, damaged safety components can cause serious issues for drivers. To compound the issue, repainting bumpers following repairs using certain colors and finishes can negatively impact these safety components’ sensors. Initially, automakers opted to replace damaged bumpers instead of repairing them, which proved costly and received significant pushback from car insurance companies.

To identify a more cost-effective and environmentally responsible solution, paint and coatings companies worked to address the issue with the automakers. Recently, PPG has partnered with many automakers to calculate the impact of their dozens of colors, including metallic finishes, on repainted bumpers to better understand the transmission loss of RADAR signals. The data showed that while the majority of colors do not impact ADAS functionality, a handful of metallic finishes did pose an issue. At certain concentrations, the aluminum pigments used in metallic paints can reduce the transmission of RADAR signals and may interfere with the operation of the ADAS.

Suppliers have evaluated swapping the aluminum pigments in the metallic finish to reduce the impact with alternatives to improve RADAR transmission. These reformulated colors maintain a good match to the vehicle’s original finish while reducing the RADAR transmission loss so that safety systems can function as they should.

Since RADAR is considered a key sensor in highly automated vehicles (85 percent of new cars are forecasted to have RADAR by 2025), the impact of metallic finishes will be an increasing industry-wide issue. According to PPG sources, 25 percent of new vehicles sold have metallic finishes.

Industry-wide steps
As the ADAS technology evolves, automakers and paint and coatings suppliers will need to take a greater role in setting the direction for repairs, with guidelines, technical and service bulletins, training and tutorials, to ensure drivers remain safe.
It will be critical for collision repair technicians to receive proper training on ADAS from identifying ADAS in vehicles (it’s hard to detect visually) and recalibrating ADAS sensors to understanding the impact of new layers of certain metallic finishes in the repair process. PPG recently launched the PPG KNOWLEDGE COLLEGE™ online learning management system, which provides the refinish industry with the most comprehensive online training programs.

Greater collaboration between paint and coatings suppliers and automakers will also prove key to developing the next-generation technologies that retain RADAR capability while continuing to provide accurate color matches. For example, PPG partners with vehicle manufacturers on its color styles in the preliminary research stage instead of after final approvals to determine the impact of its color choices on ADAS functionality. As a result, automakers are even looking five years out when choosing color styles to stay ahead of the emerging mobility trends and the increasing production of electric vehicles.

As automakers and paint suppliers learn more about the issue and develop long-term solutions for the metallic finish issue, the industry will need to consider establishing industry-wide specifications for coatings performance and measurements. A technical standard developed by one or more organizations (i.e., carmakers, trade associations, paint and coatings suppliers, or regulatory bodies) addressing the acceptable loss of RADAR transmission following a collision will be necessary for worldwide use as the ADAS market swells.

Meanwhile, it’s the responsibility of the automotive refinish industry to shed light on how a handful of metallic finishes at certain concentrations can interfere with the operation of the ADAS and how the industry is teaming up to identify solutions to maintain driver safety well into the future.



With 36 years of industry experience, Nick Tullett serves as a Global Products and Segments Director in PPG’s automotive refinish business. At PPG, we work every day to develop and deliver the paints, coatings and materials that our customers have trusted for nearly 140 years. Through dedication and creativity, we solve our customers’ biggest challenges, collaborating closely to find the right path forward. PPG’s automotive refinish business is singularly focused on delivering state-of-the-art technology to meet the needs of collision repair centers. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, we operate and innovate in more than 75 countries.

To learn more, visit www.ppgrefinish.com