The invention discloses a transmitted waveform design method suitable for an automotive anti-collision radar, and a target detection algorithm. The method comprises the following steps: determining asystem of a radar transmitted signal as a multi-order linear frequency keying system; determining parameters of transmitted waveform according to given indicators, wherein the given indicators comprises radar transmitting frequency band, maximum detection distance, maximum detection speed, distance resolution, ranging accuracy, rate accuracy and frequency domain minimum detectable signal-to-noiseratio, and the parameters required for determining one waveform comprise frequency-modulation bandwidth, coherent processing interval, the amount of the LFSK signal, stepping number of each LFSK signal, and initial frequency difference between the LFSK signals; processing the echo data of the transmitted signal, and solving the target distance and speed. The design method disclosed by the invention is moderate in calculated quantity, the detection precision is improved on the basis that the ranging is unambiguous, and the detection dead zone caused by transmitting-receiving leakage is effectively reduced.