Sad to keep seeing automation get better and the headline not to be "TomTom increases paid time off due to improved automation"
TomTom to cut 10% of jobs due to improved automation
101–110 of 269 posts
Re: TomTom to cut 10% of jobs due to improved automation
#102I worked for TomTom ~12 years ago, they had some of the best dev from all over the world. The one issue I found was they had all indpendent teams which are bit disconnected and not sure what everyone were doing in total.
Re: TomTom to cut 10% of jobs due to improved automation
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
> since a large market I work in (insurance / life insurance) is dwindling Out of curiosity, why is the life insurance market dwindling??
Less people with dependents (partners, kids)? Less people care or put thought into what happens after they die? Also anecdotally many/most peers I talk to about this say their company provides life insurance, I then point out the difference between this and actual term life insurance for when/if they change companies: “oh huh…”
Don't forget that life insurance used to come in a different form, "whole" life insurance (instead of term life insurance) which doubles as a savings/investment vehicle. This has changed a lot: people have other alternatives that are popular (401(k)s are basically everywhere), and life insurance companies are no longer able to offer the same kind of terms, especially given the ultra-low-interest-rate environment of 2008 to present.
Re: TomTom to cut 10% of jobs due to improved automation
#104I used to work for TomTom maybe 10 years ago. I was there when Google started offering turn by turn navigation for free. Other issue was live traffic information. As you might imagine all this caused some concern among employees because that was, I think, the main source of revenue for the company. They were already doing some other stuff like fitness wearables but they didn't seem to be leaning into it. Main idea fo…
If it makes you feel better, Google doesn't have a second gold vein yet, either.
Google bought their other Gold.
Youtube, Android, Google Search on iOS, ChromeOS. All of it is a moat to protect the first.
Re: TomTom to cut 10% of jobs due to improved automation
#105TomTom is such an interesting story in technology and finance. Went from zero to $ 10B+ between '05 - '07 [1]. Everyone you knew had one, used one, loved one. Then the sudden boom in mobile phones and mobile internet and the financial crisis. Total crash of the stock. Pretty much subsistence without any proper profits since '09-'10. Not enough IP to get bought, a few licensing deals here and there. Always falling rev…
As the owner of several TomTom devices, who tried a smartphone and google maps as an alternative, my experience is that the maps are of higher quality and the navigation recommendations better. Multiple times, when in a Taxi in a foreign country, that used the usual solution of smartphone and Google maps, managed to get on time and find a tricky destination by popping up my trusted TomTom.
> is that the maps are of higher quality and the navigation recommendations better.
to be clear here, for all readers.. you mean TomTom maps are higher quality? in what region? rural, urban or ? thx
Re: TomTom to cut 10% of jobs due to improved automation
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it makes you feel better, Google doesn't have a second gold vein yet, either.
Google is fk'ed if wide-scale ad blocking really picks up. For example ISP-level adblocking.
> For example ISP-level adblocking.
Google could circumvent this if ISPs tried this.
How would an ISP block ads coming in encrypted as normal content?
Re: TomTom to cut 10% of jobs due to improved automation
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google is fk'ed if wide-scale ad blocking really picks up. For example ISP-level adblocking.
> For example ISP-level adblocking. Google could circumvent this if ISPs tried this. How would an ISP block ads coming in encrypted as normal content?
The same way as PiHole does. It's not hard to block Google adds on 3rd party sites with a DNS or IP-level block.
Re: TomTom to cut 10% of jobs due to improved automation
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For example ISP-level adblocking. Google could circumvent this if ISPs tried this. How would an ISP block ads coming in encrypted as normal content?
The same way as PiHole does. It's not hard to block Google adds on 3rd party sites with a DNS or IP-level block.
If ISPs actually tried to do this en-masse, Google would move all ad serving to google.com
Re: TomTom to cut 10% of jobs due to improved automation
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google is fk'ed if wide-scale ad blocking really picks up. For example ISP-level adblocking.
Of course they’re not. It just might get more complicated for users but it’d be super easy for them to set up cloaking. uBlock could deal with that, ISP won’t. Either way that will never happen obviously; Why would an ISP “block ads”? They’re literally hosting Google hardware (specifically YouTube’s cache)
I can see ad-blocking as a feature an ISP can try to sell. Imagine an ISP-level PiHole. (I can see this selling easily given how many family and friends asked me to install PiHole for them.
Re: TomTom to cut 10% of jobs due to improved automation
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something that most commenters are missing is that TomTom's most revenue comes from B2B deals, which are mostly deals with automotive companies for car screens experience and also providing maps data for products like Bing Maps.
And most consumers would much rather have either CarPlay or Android Auto than the crappy software that is made my the manufacturers.
Is that true? Not saying you are wrong but is it just an anecdote? I anecdotally know lots of people that just use their car GPS and don’t bother with CarPlay/AA