Waymo has disclosed a custom-designed SoC (System-on-Chip) ASIC for its autonomous driving system, replacing off-the-shelf components with a 5nm chip built by TSMC using components from AMD, NVIDIA, Micron, and others. The chip integrates 1,000 TOPS of machine learning processing power to handle sensor fusion with improved real-time responsiveness, safety, thermal resilience, and redundancy. This vertical integration demonstrates how specialized hardware design—tailored to specific algorithms—enables superior sensor perception even in low-light conditions, giving Waymo a competitive edge in autonomous vehicle technology.