Waymo Unveils Its Robotaxi Chip and Supplier List
Waymo has made a significant move by publishing the architecture of its robotaxis, including a custom 5nm chip designed in-house and the names of its seven hardware suppliers. Among them are Nvidia and AMD.
The Chip’s Role
The chip, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), plays a crucial role in processing sensor data before it reaches the driving system. It handles tasks like temporal denoising to enhance perception in low-light conditions and feeds this processed information into a separate inference engine for sensor fusion.
Performance and Comparison
Waymo boasts that these ASICs deliver over 1,000 TOPS (tera operations per second) of ML performance dedicated to front-end processing and models. While Bloomberg compared this to Nvidia’s latest autonomous systems, Waymo clarifies that its chip is a front-end processor, not a complete driving platform.
A Balanced Approach
The company emphasizes a balanced system, combining its custom silicon with leading CPUs, GPUs, and accelerators from suppliers like Micron, Samsung, Sandisk, Socionext, and TSMC. This approach ensures the best performance across various components while maintaining safety through redundancy.
Design Considerations
Waymo’s design meets three key constraints:
- Latency: Minimizing the delay between sensor input and actuation, measured in "pixels-to-actuation."
- Durability: Withstanding vibration, shock, and temperature variations within a car’s environment.
- Redundancy: Ensuring system reliability through dual engines that take over if one fails, eliminating the need for human backup.
Waymo’s Track Record
Waymo cites over 200 million miles of autonomous driving experience, with approximately 4,000 vehicles operating in more than 10 cities, completing around 500,000 paid trips weekly.