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TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

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Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#91

Post by jillesvangurp »

nevi-me wrote: post #8

It sounds like TT will be a net taker from OSM, I hope they contribute as much as they benefit, as otherwise it would sound like they're giving up on prop-mapping by cutting costs. It's a press release I suppose, but saying the world lacks an open platform, and processing to use such open platform, sounds a bit weird

Why so negative? OSM is now business critical to a lot of companies. These companies are of course being selfish. But the side effect of this is a lot of investment in the data and community itself.

Tom Tom have got their work cut out, this space is super competitive. Just passively taking the data is not a way to compete in this space. You need to step up to stand out. Tom Tom is doing this out of necessity. They've been active in this space for a long time but they are now getting a lot of competition from other companies; many of whom are pooling resources via open data efforts, like open street maps. That gives these companies a cost advantage because maintaining maps is an expensive business and the base map is now a free commodity.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#92

Post by jbaber »

Semaphor wrote: post #7
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #6

OpenStreetMap is the second most-important resource on the Internet, after the Wikipedia.

And if you are on android, there’s a super simple and easy, lightly gamified, app to help improve their data: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/StreetComplete

My kids loved using this on long walks in the neighborhood. Until we'd heavily trodden some paths and the only questions were about road surfaces and streetlamps :)

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#93

Post by mywacaday »

brnt wrote: post #12
kleiba wrote: post #3

For the youngens here on HN: TomTom was once one of the leading manufacturers of GPS navigation systems for cars - purchased as an accessory that was stuck to the wind screen. This was in a time before every car had a screen built in, and before everyone had a smart phone with Google Maps in their pocket. I guess that product is a prime example for becoming irrelevant by society progressing. I actually still use an o…

> old car that doesn't have a screen (well, it does, but didn't come with a GPS built in I used to pick up and deliver lease cars from/to customers, and I'll never forget the Audi which had navigation, but no screen! There was a two line text display, which would show textual directions. It was an interesting experience!

I bought my 2009 Audi in 2014, it was missing some new roads and updates in my area, I approached the dealer about an update, they wanted €250 for the disc and €250 for the license key.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#94

Post by chrisseaton »

gambiting wrote: post #88
astrange wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple Maps has the feature you just described, and their maps either are TomTom or are better than TomTom.

I don't know, here in UK they just seem to be barren, with major roads still missing, they don't know about "no right/left turn" signs in places, they don't know about one-way streets......it's not a good system. I don't know how it can be using TomTom's data if TomTom doesn't have any of the same issues.

> with major roads still missing

I really struggle to believe that. Major roads missing from Apple Maps? Can you give any examples?

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#96

Post by arrrg »

avar wrote: post #75

A meta-comment: The entire tone of this press release is so weird, e.g.: "There’s also significant talk about how the company will use OSM data. It’s clear TomTom is treading cautiously and respectfully here.". That's something you might expect to read in an article written by an independent journalist, not a corporate press release written by in-house staff.

Press releases are always written in a way that makes it as easy as possible for journalists to just, well, basically copy the text and just use it without modifications.

That’s a press release writing best practice. Your goal is to match the journalistic writing style as closely as possible, all the while still transporting all the messages you want to transport. Make it easy for the journalist to be lazy. It has been this way since basically forever because PR writers know that journalists are under a lot of time pressure and often don’t even have the resources to write everything from scratch. So you offer them something that’s hard to resist …

I guess the web has sort of muddied the waters there (with companies being able to publish press releases on their own websites) but the intended target audience of press releases are actually journalists. In the past companies usually had no way of publishing and distributing news about themselves on their own. (And, to be honest, press releases on their own website still aren’t the best publishing platform.)

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#97

Post by msh »

fork-while-fork wrote: post #61
gambiting wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a modern car with a built-in satnav as well as Android Auto support, and yet I still use my TomTom 5000 - it's just better. Definitely better than crappy Google Maps, definitely better than volvo's built-in maps, and it's without any kind of comparison how much better it is than Apple Maps. You get in the car, it auto-selects the destination based on the patterns it learnt(so if you get in at 7am on a workday,…

Google maps with Android Auto does auto-learn popular/regular destinations and suggests them at appropriate times. It works pretty well.

apple maps do the same and also works quite well. I miss it in my tesla.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#98

Post by izacus »

chrisseaton wrote: post #90
izacus wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also important how they're doing this. GMaps in my car constantly fails to show anything useful (or even start navigation) because there's no signal in my underground garage. Such a simple thing and yet TomTom can do it and Google can't.

My car's built-in navigation can use dead reckoning based on steering angle and wheel speed, so is still better than TomTom in this respect. I really think this person who is clinging to their old TomTom is a bit oblivious to what all the alternatives now do and how they do it better.

Mhm - note that with "TomTom" I now mean Android app (which has Android Auto integration) and not an old standalone device :)

I've also seen that same very app as a builtin navigation with all the features (including live traffic) in a new Fiat 500e, so it seems like they're licensing the tech to car manufacturers.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#99

Post by shp0ngle »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #6

OpenStreetMap is the second most-important resource on the Internet, after the Wikipedia.

I gave up trying to edit mistakes on OSM.

I edited something, one month later someone reverted it back without any explanation.

And the UX for discussion is even worse than on Wikipedia, which is saying something. So I have no idea why it was reverted, no idea how to contact the guy and no mood to investigate.

So my street has a wrong name and I am too lazy to change it

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#100

Post by smusamashah »

Semaphor wrote: post #7
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #6

OpenStreetMap is the second most-important resource on the Internet, after the Wikipedia.

And if you are on android, there’s a super simple and easy, lightly gamified, app to help improve their data: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/StreetComplete

There is also Every Door which i find less annoying. Street complete puts lots of noise on the map. I don't know the answer to my selected questions all the time. Every door lets you fill in whatever you can.

https://every-door.app/

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