(Bloomberg) — Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo has built a custom chip that the company said will improve the performance of its robotaxis, while also diversifying its chip supply beyond third-party companies such as Nvidia Corp.
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The ASIC chip — short for application-specific integrated circuit — is in production in Waymo’s latest robotaxi generation, the company said Thursday. Waymo said using its own chip, alongside others and with sensors the company designed itself, will improve its robotaxis’ reflexes and navigational skills in complex urban environments.
Waymo has historically relied on products from companies including Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., integrating them into computers of its own design. With a specialized chip, Waymo said it can now more quickly process sensor data and run AI models that help robotaxis understand and respond to surroundings.
The move marks a shift toward more purpose-built robotaxis that Waymo said may reduce costs while offering roomier, more accessible spaces for riders. It also coincides with Alphabet’s Google orchestrating a broader effort to develop custom chips and control the soaring costs of AI computing infrastructure.
Waymo is the clear US robotaxi leader, offering more rides in cities including San Francisco, Phoenix and Atlanta than rivals like Tesla Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.’s Zoox. Its fleet has largely relied on Jaguar vehicles retrofitted with autonomous-driving technology and chips from others. But it recently launched a robotaxi with Zeekr, an arm of China-based automaker Geely Automobile Holdings, that is now being equipped with the new custom chip.
Waymo said its chip is capable of more than 1,000 TOPS, short for trillions of operations per second. Based on that measure, Waymo’s in-house effort would be on par with Nvidia’s latest systems for autonomous driving.
The chip is made using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s 5-nanometer technique, Waymo said. That type of production, while no longer TSMC’s most advanced offering, is still used by many leading companies for their manufacturing.
–With assistance from Ian King.
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