Waymo details the custom chip in its autonomous driving system
Waymo LLC today shared new details about the computing module that powers its autonomous taxis.
The Alphabet Inc. unit operates about 4,000 vehicles in 11 U.S. cities. Most are based on the Jaguar I-Pace crossover, while the rest are Zeeker minivans and Hyundai Ioniq 5 SUVs. Consumers order rides via a standalone app and Uber.
Waymo’s autonomous driving module is in its sixth iteration. Much of the current version’s computing power comes from two custom ASICs, or application-specific integrated circuits. An ASIC is a chip designed from the ground up for a specific set of tasks. Waymo says the accelerators can perform more than 1,000 trillion calculations per second.
“To make real-time driving decisions, the autonomous system operates entirely onboard, constantly processing decisions within milliseconds,” Waymo executives Satish Jeyachandran and Daniel Rosenband wrote in a blog post. “We have engineered our stack for ultra-low latency, minimizing the delay from first pixel to action.”
