{"id":1810125,"date":"2022-11-29T19:35:43","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T00:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1810125"},"modified":"2022-11-30T10:58:54","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T15:58:54","slug":"the-tomtom-maps-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/11\/the-tomtom-maps-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"The TomTom Maps Platform"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TomTomEarlier this month, at its investor meeting, TomTom announced<\/a> that it was launching something called the TomTom Maps Platform<\/a>. The announcement was, because of where it was made, long on investor-focused jargon<\/a>: growth, innovation, etc., so it\u2019s not immediately clear<\/a> what it will mean.<\/p>\n

Basically, TomTom is building a map ecosystem that can be built on by developers and businesses: an apparent shot across the bow at the Google Maps ecosystem. And indeed that\u2019s how The Next Web<\/em> sees it<\/a>: an attempt to \u201cwrestle control\u201d of digital mapping away from Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

TomTom plans to do so by combining map data from its own data, third-party sources, sensor data, and OpenStreetMap. I\u2019ve been around long enough to know that combining disparate map data sources is neither trivial nor easy. It\u2019s also very labour intensive. TomTom says<\/a> they\u2019ll be using AI and machine learning to automate that process. It\u2019ll be a real accomplishment if they can make it work. It may actually be a very big deal. I suspect it may also be the only way to make this platform remotely any good and financially viable at the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month, at its investor meeting, TomTom announced that it was launching something called the TomTom Maps Platform. The announcement was, because of where it was made, long on investor-focused jargon: growth, innovation, etc.,… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,80],"tags":[386,1556],"class_list":["post-1810125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-industry","category-mobile","tag-openstreetmap","tag-tomtom","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1805941,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/01\/tomtom-says-its-algorithms-avoid-potentially-dangerous-routes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1810125,"position":0},"title":"TomTom Says Its Algorithms Avoid Potentially Dangerous Routes","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 January 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"It probably has nothing to do with Google redirecting traffic up poorly maintained mountain roads during a blizzard in California last month (previously), but TomTom has posted a piece explaining how its algorithms avoid sending drivers down potentially dangerous routes in Finland even though, on paper, they\u2019re shorter. TomTom\u2019s routing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1811111,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/12\/the-overture-map-foundation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1810125,"position":1},"title":"The Overture Map Foundation","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"29 December 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"Announced earlier this month, the Overture Map Foundation is an initiative founded by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Meta (i.e. Facebook), Microsoft and TomTom to build an ecosystem of interoperable open map data\u2014an ecosystem, note, that does not at the moment include Apple, Esri or Google, so presumably this is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Industry"","block_context":{"text":"Industry","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/industry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5321,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2012\/06\/apple-replaces-google-maps-on-ios\/","url_meta":{"origin":1810125,"position":2},"title":"Apple Replaces Google Maps on iOS","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"11 June 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"So last week Google held a press event outlining several upcoming features and innovations in Google Maps, including the ability to use maps offline on Android (i.e., without a network connection), some pretty impressive 3D imagery, and shrinking the Street View camera so that it'll fit in a backpack. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1787650,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/08\/tech-companies-ignore-ntsb-request-to-add-railway-crossings-to-their-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1810125,"position":3},"title":"Tech Companies Ignore NTSB Request to Add Railway Crossings to Their Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"22 August 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"Tech companies have largely ignored a U.S. National Transportation Safety Board recommendation to add railway crossing data to their map apps, Politico reports. In 2016, after an accident in which a tired truck driver who used his mobile phone to navigate crashed into an Amtrak train at a level crossing,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1836613,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/02\/gulf-of-america-isnt-going-over-well\/","url_meta":{"origin":1810125,"position":4},"title":"‘Gulf of America’ Isn’t Going Over Well","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"13 February 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"A Reuters\/Ipsos poll conducted 24-26 January found that 70 percent of Americans oppose renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America; only 25 percent support the move. Google Maps users have been leaving one-star reviews of the Gulf to protest Google\u2019s compliance with the renaming; Google has deleted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Censorship"","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/censorship\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5568,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2013\/02\/all-online-maps-suck\/","url_meta":{"origin":1810125,"position":5},"title":"All Online Maps Suck","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"28 February 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This is something I've been meaning to write for a while. I should have written it last December, during the hullaballoo over Apple's maps, but I've never been one to strike when the iron is hot. You'll recall that there were a lot of complaints about Apple's maps app when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Map Errors"","block_context":{"text":"Map Errors","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/map-errors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1810125"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1810141,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810125\/revisions\/1810141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1810125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1810125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1810125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}