Waymo builds custom chip for robotaxi fleet
In a blog post Thursday, the Alphabet-owned company revealed that it designed a custom computer chip that quickly crunches raw data coming from a car’s cameras, lidar, and radar.
Alphabet's Waymo has unveiled details about the custom chip that powers its driverless car technology. In a blog post published on Thursday, the company disclosed that it developed its own computer chip capable of swiftly processing data from a vehicle's cameras, lidar, and radar systems, enabling it to make decisions "within milliseconds."
This remarkable feat is particularly noteworthy given the size limitations of the chip, which must be integrated into a compact space - the trunk of a car - while also being powered by the vehicle's battery.
The same constraints faced by Waymo's chip will play a crucial role in the widespread deployment of humanoid robots, whose brains will need to be even more compact than the current system. Unlike city streets, the environments where these robots will operate, such as stores, homes, factories, and hospitals, are inherently unpredictable. Creating robots capable of navigating these diverse and chaotic settings poses a significant challenge for the industry.
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