Dutch navigation software specialist TomTom, which grew out of one of the world’s two pioneering digital mapping companies with a strong connection in Belgium, is forced to cut another 300 jobs from its 3,600 employees worldwide to “prepare for the future.”
That future will be increasingly based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and autonomous driving, as TomTom becomes more dependent on professional applications while consumer device sales decline. The question is: what future can we expect in the automotive industry, which is in turmoil?
Maps for autonomous driving
TomTom says the restructuring is necessary to refocus on an AI-based business model and its high-definition maps for autonomous driving, Orbis Maps.
It will primarily result in job cuts in sales and supporting services, with half of them outside the Netherlands, where the company is headquartered in Amsterdam. In Ghent, Belgium, TomTom currently employs around 180 to 200 people.
In 2024, TomTom suffered a loss of more than 17 million euros. Additionally, total turnover decreased. A further decline in turnover is expected this year.
TomTom, a stock exchange-listed private company, generates most of its revenue today by licensing maps to OEMs such as Volkswagen, Fiat, Renault, and Mazda, among others, and by selling traffic APIs, government contracts, and enterprise fleet management solutions, including those for trucks.
It established a strong name in the early days of GPS-enabled consumer devices, which sold in large numbers at that time, but are now being replaced as more software-based solutions are offered to consumers on smartphones and in-car navigation systems.
However, TomTom still offers its popular TomTom Go navigation software on Apple and Android platforms for a moderate subscription fee. Used in a car with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, it often outperforms the built-in car navigation systems by far, in terms of map detail and accuracy, as well as real-time, fast, up-to-date traffic information.
Data from 600 million devices
TomTom focuses on large-scale, anonymized GPS probe data from approximately 600 million devices worldwide, including fleets and cars. It also integrates municipal feeds and sensor data. From governments and traffic management centers, it receives accident reports, roadwork data, weather-related incidents, and planned road closures.
All inputs are ingested into TomTom’s Traffic Fusion Engine, which filters out ‘noise’ or inaccurate data, verifies anomalies across multiple data points, and applies map-matching algorithms to associate GPS data with specific road segments.
It can compare traffic flows with historical data to detect slowdowns and jams early. The real-time traffic model feeds directly into TomTom’s Live Routing Engine, which reroutes drivers based on up-to-date traffic conditions and predicts travel times on alternative routes.
Benchmarked against Google, Waze, and HERE
It is fully automated, scalable, and designed to respond to global traffic changes within 30 seconds. It is considered one of the most accurate in the world, often benchmarked against Google, HERE, and Waze.
Compared to popular Waze, owned by Google, the latter depends heavily on crowdsourcing. Users actively report traffic jams, accidents, speed traps, and other road hazards in real-time. In some cases, that can be faster, but it is more challenging to verify the user input and is sometimes less accurate in rural or low-traffic areas.
By its nature, it critically requires an uninterrupted internet connection and a sufficient GPS signal of at least three satellites. In contrast, TomTom Go, for instance, has its detailed maps downloaded locally and continues to work during periods when the GPS signal or internet connection is temporarily lost.
Next-generation Orbis Maps?
For this ‘AI future’, TomTom bets on its Orbis Maps, its next-generation high-definition mapping platform. The latter was announced in 2022 and launched commercially in 2023–2024.
It represents a complete re-engineering of how TomTom builds, maintains, and distributes digital maps—designed to be real-time, scalable, modular, and highly adaptable to modern use cases, such as autonomous driving, logistics, app development, and augmented reality.
TomTom originated in the Netherlands in 1991, starting as Palmtop Software for the then-popular Palm handheld PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) devices, offering route planners among other features.
In 2004, TomTom launched its first standalone GPS navigation device (TomTom GO), which became extremely popular in Europe. TomTom becomes the official company name and goes public on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange in 2005.
For its digital maps, it relied heavily on Tele Atlas, a Dutch company founded in 1984 by George de Bock, a Dutch entrepreneur. Tele Atlas, together with Navtec, was one of the two companies in the world that pioneered digital geographic databases for navigation and mapping.
Merging with Ghent-based Tele Atlas
In the mid-1990s, Tele Atlas merged with Etak Europe, a spin-off from General Motors, which had significant operations and its main R&D center in Ghent, Belgium. Ghent became the headquarters of the new Tele Atlas.
In the early days, before Google Maps and Apple Maps began offering alternatives, Tele Atlas and Navtec dominated the world of digital maps. It was the ‘Royal Warrant Holder’ for popular navigation devices from TomTom (Europe), Garmin (US and Europe), MapQuest, and other web mapping services.
Tele Atlas was acquired by TomTom in 2008, a deal worth €2.9 billion. Since then, TomTom has remained a significant presence in Ghent. Navtec eventually was bought by Swedish Nokia and later sold to a consortium of German carmakers and automotive suppliers (Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Intel, Bosch and Continental) to become HERE.
HERE is considered the European automotive industry’s preferred map provider for in-car systems, thanks to its ownership.
