60 second interview Jan-Maarten de Vr ies , VP pr oduct managem ent and mark e ti ng au tomoti v e, TomTom
Navigation: showing the way
stand-alone navigators that can be transferred between vehicles. At the Geneva Show, it announced it would be working with
T
Toyota on their traffic service from 2014 and that Daimler will start using TomTom as from this summer. Meanwhile, it has extended its partnership with Fiat, as well as doing the head unit systems for Renault, Toyota, Mazda, Fiat, Lexus and Infiniti. “OEMs sees us as the connected navigation specialist. As
consumer electronics is starting to blur with the automotive world, because of connected cars, and we see a lot of innovation with smartphones, people increasingly like the flexibility and content they have. They want companies like TomTom to bring that expertise into their cars, so they can create their own infotainment system and bring innovation from consumer electronics into the car. “We see the smartphone’s capability and
omTom is emerging as a leading contender in the field of embedded navigation systems for vehicles, as well as for brought-in devices such as smartphones, tablets and
capacity as a threat and an opportunity. I don’t believe in a ‘one size fits all’ approach; across cars’ ranges, there will be a combination of embedded and brought-in solutions. There are good reasons as to why an embedded solution is still the best and very relevant for the car makers. The OEMs have more control over the design and so the screen tends to be bigger, more focused on the driver. At the same time, a smartphone is a brought-in device and cannot be used while driving the car. “I see augmented reality as an important trend. The future of navigation will be
“Fundamental issues include keeping content and software up to date, it gets outdated very quickly.”
on multiple screens, while head-up displays (HUD) is a natural way to guide the driver. I believe it will cascade down from the luxury brands and, when the price of the technology falls, we want to support that. In the future, the windshield will be complementary to the embedded functionality; it won’t be an either or. OEMs will offer a premium package for a higher price, including augmented reality for a safety package. “Fundamental issues include keeping content and software up to date; it gets
outdated very quickly. We’ve started latest map guarantee; just plug the navigator into your pc to update the maps. We’re now moving into incremental map updates that we call ‘fresh maps’. We’re building an end-to-end update platform that’s able to acquire latest map data through community input and can process that data in 48 hours, and give it back to the community in that timeframe. You receive over-the- air map updates relevant to your route. It’s a cloud-based system; we don’t always need to send a full map, but rather only send the delta for your route. “We need more accurate mapping than today 2.5 metres now, but it needs to below
a metre within 3-5 years.” 34
www.automotivedesign.eu.com May/June 2013
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