Autonomous Driving

Waymo unveils custom 5nm chip; Also raises $150M, Serve partners with Grubhub

Waymo revealed a custom 5nm chip for its robotaxis; Also raised $150M; Serve added Grubhub and expanded DoorDash.

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According to TechCrunch, Waymo has built a custom 5-nanometer ASIC chip to handle the massive influx of raw data that flows into its sixth-generation self-driving system, which powers the company’s next-generation Ojai robotaxi. The chip delivers more than 1,000 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) of computing performance, roughly in the same range as Nvidia’s latest DRIVE AGX Thor automotive processor. Waymo says the chip is a critical piece of a system that can react fast and safely in complex, high-density environments like cities. The company has repeatedly said the Ojai, now open to all riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco, is cheaper to build, operate and maintain than earlier versions — ingredients required if Waymo hopes to someday turn a profit. The custom silicon is designed to process data before it reaches the core 'brain' of the self-driving system; the Ojai carries 13 high-fidelity cameras.

AI News Feed · 2026-08-24 02:14

Waymo shared details of the chip this week and listed partners, some for the first time, including AMD, Micron, Nvidia, Samsung, Sandisk, Socionext and TSMC. The end result, Waymo says, is a system with 'unmatched efficiency and performance.' The company gets a lot of attention for its fast-paced expansion. According to TechCrunch, it seems like every week, Waymo’s robotaxis are arriving in a new city, or expanding within an existing service area.

Separately, TechCrunch reported that the Idaho National Laboratory is evaluating whether Chinese lidar sensors might pose a security risk if they become widely used on vehicles in the United States. The research is being funded by a company or group of companies in the electric and autonomous vehicle industries. TechCrunch reached out to Rivian, General Motors, Ford, Kodiak, Lucid Motors, Nuro and Uber, all of which said they were unaware of the review; Aurora, Nvidia and Zoox did not respond.

Also, a startup that spun out of Rivian in March 2025, raised another $150 million in a Series D round led by Prysm Capital, with participation from existing backers Eclipse, Greenoaks and MVP Ventures. The Palo Alto-based company, which originally launched as a micromobility business focused on pedal-assist electric bikes and commercial cargo quads, has evolved into a developer of driven and autonomous small electric vehicles. It has now raised $455 million since the spinout. Earlier this year, Also closed a $200 million round and announced a multiyear commercial agreement with DoorDash to develop and deploy autonomous delivery vehicles.

Serve Robotics, a sidewalk delivery robot company, has partnered with Grubhub to use its robots, starting in Chicago, Los Angeles and Alexandria, Virginia. It also expanded its existing partnership with DoorDash to San Jose, California, and Washington, D.C. According to insiders, Serve had been working on several other deals that were recently finalized months before Uber reduced its use of the company’s robots on its app and sold all of its shares; that partnership is set to end next year. The developments illustrate an important lesson for any company attempting to scale: always diversify.