Waymo deployed its custom application-specific integrated circuit in its newest robotaxi; the chip delivers more than 1,000 TOPS.

Waymo said its custom application-specific integrated circuit, or ASIC, has been installed in its newest-generation robotaxi. An ASIC is a chip designed for a defined workload rather than the broad range of tasks handled by a general-purpose processor.

The chip provides more than 1,000 trillion operations per second, or TOPS, of stated compute performance. Waymo combines it with other processors and company-designed sensors in the vehicle platform.

According to Waymo, the ASIC’s specialized accelerators extract relevant information directly from raw lidar, radar and camera streams. One identified workload is temporal denoising intended to improve perception under low-light conditions, while the combined platform supports reaction and navigation in complex urban environments.