Waymo Reveals Custom 5nm AI Chip With 1,000+ TOPS for Robotaxi Expansion
Waymo has detailed a purpose-built 5nm ASIC delivering more than 1,000 TOPS for front-end sensor processing in its robotaxis.
Why it matters: Custom silicon could reduce latency, power and system cost while giving Waymo tighter control over a critical part of its autonomous-driving stack.
Waymo has revealed a custom artificial-intelligence processor designed specifically for its robotaxis, giving Alphabet's autonomous-driving company greater control over vehicle performance, power consumption and cost. The purpose-built 5-nanometer ASIC processes raw camera, lidar and radar information before the data reaches the core Waymo Driver. Waymo says the processors provide more than 1,000 TOPS of machine-learning performance for front-end processing and neural-network workloads. The system is designed around extremely low latency, while Waymo says its onboard computing performance has increased approximately twentyfold over eight years. The company continues to use technology from outside semiconductor suppliers including AMD, Nvidia, Micron, Samsung, SanDisk, Socionext and TSMC. The custom chip nevertheless represents an important step toward vertical integration as Waymo expands into more cities and works to reduce the cost of each robotaxi.