TechCrunch Mobility: The custom chip driving Waymo's robotaxi ambitions
News Source
โขSun, 23 Aug 2026 16:03:00 +0000
๐ฐ What Happened
Waymo, the self-driving car company, is growing its robot taxi service fast. Its newest car, the Ojai, is now open to all riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. The firm says this car is cheaper to build, run, and maintain.
This week Waymo shared that it built its own custom chip to speed up the car's brain. The small chip sorts a huge amount of data passed from the car's many cameras first. Waymo says the chip handles more than one thousand trillion operations every second.
๐ The Backstory
Self-driving cars need to scan the world faster than a human eye. Waymo has worked for years to make robot taxis safe on real roads. Cost has been the biggest wall to profit, so makers seek cheaper parts and power.
By making its own chip, Waymo cuts the price of key parts. The chip sorts camera data before the main computer does the hard choices. This shift toward a cheaper self-driving car could one day make robot rides affordable and more common.
๐ฏ Why It Matters
Robot taxis could change how cities move, especially for people who can't drive. Lower part costs could one day cut fares for a ride. Cheaper, safer self-driving cars could bring driverless travel to more of us sooner.
Waymo, the self-driving car company, is growing its robot taxi service fast. Its newest car, the Ojai, is now open to all riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. The firm says this car is cheaper to build, run, and maintain.
This week Waymo shared that it built its own custom chip to speed up the car's brain. The small chip sorts a huge amount of data passed from the car's many cameras first. Waymo says the chip handles more than one thousand trillion operations every second.
Self-driving cars need to scan the world faster than a human eye. Waymo has worked for years to make robot taxis safe on real roads. Cost has been the biggest wall to profit, so makers seek cheaper parts and power.
By making its own chip, Waymo cuts the price of key parts. The chip sorts camera data before the main computer does the hard choices. This shift toward a cheaper self-driving car could one day make robot rides affordable and more common.
Robot taxis could change how cities move, especially for people who can't drive. Lower part costs could one day cut fares for a ride. Cheaper, safer self-driving cars could bring driverless travel to more of us sooner.