Inside Waymo's self-driving car: My favorite transistors

Abstract

Waymo's self-driving cars contain a broad set of technologies that enable our cars to sense the vehicle surroundings, perceive and understand what is happening in the vehicle vicinity, and determine the safe and efficient actions that the vehicle should take. Many of these technologies are rooted in advanced semiconductor technologies, e.g. faster transistors that enable more compute or low noise designs that enable the faintest sensor signals to be perceived. This paper summarizes a few areas where semiconductor technologies have proven to be fundamentally enabling to self-driving capabilities. The paper also lays out some of the challenges facing advanced semiconductors in the automotive context, as well as some of the opportunities for future innovation.