Waymo has quietly built its own chip, and it is already riding around in the cars
Alphabet's Waymo has designed a custom application-specific chip for its robotaxis and it is already in production in the latest generation of its hardware, Bloomberg reported on 20 August. The part runs above 1,000 TOPS, which puts it level with Nvidia's current autonomous-driving systems on that particular measure, and is manufactured on Taiwan Semiconductor's 5-nanometre process. Waymo says the chip speeds up sensor data processing and the models the vehicle uses to read and respond to what is around it, while cutting power draw and per-vehicle hardware cost. The robotaxi Waymo recently launched with Zeekr, the electric-vehicle arm of China's Geely, is being fitted with it. The move reduces Waymo's reliance on suppliers including Nvidia and AMD.
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