What’s inside this trunk helps power our self-driving minivans

Waymo’s self-driving vehicles can see 360 degrees, track thousands of moving objects simultaneously, and detect the subtle nuances of the road — like a cyclist’s hand signal. This kind of real-time understanding of the world requires not just advanced sensors and software, but a high-performance specialized computer to match.

Like our LiDAR, radar and vision systems, Waymo’s compute platform on our self-driving Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivan is designed entirely in-house by Waymo engineers. By developing our own compute, our engineers can carefully select the components that are best suited for fully self-driving technology. Take, for example, our work with Intel. Waymo has been using Intel products since 2009. For our latest vehicle, our engineers worked with Intel from the design stage to integrate some of Intel’s most-advanced processors and other technology into our own platform.

Our self-driving Pacifica minivans are now the most advanced cars on the road today. By working closely with partners like Intel, Waymo’s vehicles will continue to have the advanced processing power required for safe driving wherever they go.

You can read more about work with Intel over at TechCrunch.