Waymo details custom AI silicon for autonomous vehicles

Waymo, an Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle manufacturer, has unveiled a custom AI chip designed to enhance the performance of its robotaxis. The "purpose-built 5nm ASIC" chip, engineered to optimize AV systems for low-latency performance, enables faster real-time driving commands. Waymo’s AV systems integrate co-developed hardware, sensors, and algorithms to process and run advanced neural networks on raw sensor data in real-time.

The company’s custom chip is designed to manage the large volume of data an AV system must handle, ensuring safe decisions are made within milliseconds. Waymo has partnered with industry leaders like AMD, Micron, Nvidia, Samsung, Sandisk, Socionext, and TSMC to scale this technology. The chip delivers over 1,000 TOPS of machine-learning performance specifically for front-end processing and ML models.

Although Waymo currently operates in 11 US cities, it plans to expand to 19 more locations, London, and Tokyo. The company has faced recent recalls due to software issues, including a recent recall of nearly 3,900 robotaxis in the US over a software problem allowing vehicles to enter closed freeway construction zones. In May, Waymo recalled nearly 3,800 robotaxis for a software issue that could cause vehicles to drive onto flooded roadways. In February, Waymo raised $16bn in funding, bringing its valuation to $126bn.