Adaptive Cruise Control using Tesla Radar

[xtitoris]

I am building an adaptive cruise control module for my 1983 Mercedes.
While it has a factory cruise control (or tempomat in german), the adaptiveness is what really missing. It was made obvious on my last interstate cruise from Brisbane to Sydney and back.
Getting stuck behind a car that goes around a speed limit, but speeds up and slows down all the time is a bit annoying.
I've been researching the possibility for a couple of years now, but I finally decided that it is time.

I've started by researching what radar modules are available, and which can be used without too much hassle.
Most of the modern OEM radar units implement some sort of component protection, and also rely on heavy communication with ecu, tcu, abs, and other systems. Basically, they implement cruise control algorithms internally, and send out requests for acceleration and braking.
After a lot of search effort, I've come across radars used on new Teslas. They hit all of the boxes — no crazy unit protection, it requires just a simple heartbeat from ECU. And also, just as important, they output raw radar data of tracked objects, which is perfect for implementing custom control strategies.