A forward-looking automotive radar typically utilizes the frequency modulated continuous wave(FMCW) or pulsed-Doppler waveform for the Information acquisition of the target range and velocity. In order to obtain the high resolution target information, however, a narrow pulse width and wide bandwidth are inherently required, thus resulting in high peak power and high speed digital converter processing. In this paper, a stepped-frequency pulsed-Doppler(SFPD) waveform algorithm is proposed for high resolution forward looking automotive radar application. The performance of the proposed SFPD waveform technique is analyzed and compared with the conventional FMCW and PD method. Since this technique can be used for the high resolution target imaging with arbitrary range and Doppler resolution, it is expected to be useful In automotive radar target classification for the precision collision avoidance applications in the future.