Interview GPS Business News

Please find below the interview I gave on behalf of TomTom to one of my favorite tech sites, GPS Business News.

TomTom HD Traffic: Cellular Data Isn’t Essential

Exclusive interview with Ivar Zantinge, VP Partner Development at TomTom

GPS Business News interviewed with Ivar Zantinge, VP Partner Development at TomTom who has been involved in signing up partnerships with wireless operators across Europe (Vodafone, SFR, ..) to source M2M connectivity for TomTom’s connected PNDs as well as cellular data to build HD Traffic.

In this interview we spoke more specifically about the evolving technologies behind TomTom’s HD Traffic to clarify some misunderstandings in reporting the launch of HD Traffic last week in Austria.

GPS Business News: A few years ago the technology background of HD Traffic was mostly centered on getting vast amount of anonymized cellular data from wireless operators (Vodafone, SFR, etc…) that were processed to create an accurate picture of the traffic conditions in real-time. Nowadays you have launched (Austria, South Africa) or are launching (United States) services in countries where you do not leverage cellular data, so can you clarify this technology aspect?

Ivar Zantinge: Sure. What is key to understand here is that we are building a service based on a quality standard, not the type of data sources. If we can get to this high quality standard without using cellular data then it is fine for us. The key point here is quality not which data source you are using.

GPS BN: What are the other data sources you are using?

IZ: Cellular data was the start of HD traffic, but what has changed in the past four years is that we have built this huge database of historical data based on anonymized feedback from our users. It brings more information and a high level of predicatability. But obviously you cannot rely only on historical data. So when we combine that with live data from GPS probes – fleet and consumer data alike – we do not need as much live data as we did in the past.

Cellular technologies provide a huge amount of data which is great, but it is complex to use because the networks have not been built for that purpose and it is also expensive. Therefore, as far as quality standards are met using live GPS probes, HD Traffic can be rolled out faster and at a lower cost without cellular data.

GPS BN: So how is it working in a country like Austria that you have announed last week?

IZ: Specifically for Austria we are not using cellular data. Real-time GPS data is used. In Austria we have an existing base of business solution users. And we have a significant market share in Austria. We combine that with consumer user data and it provides high quality real-time information without using cellular data. This real-time GPS probe data is then combined with IQ route (i.e. historical data) and journalistic data from Austrian radio ORF.

GPS BN: Are you also leveraging your iPhone customers as probes?

IZ: We are getting data but only when HD traffic is subscribed by the iPhone users.

GPS BN: What are your ambitions for HD Traffic?

IZ: Our ambition is to have HD Traffic live in the majority of countries where we have services. We want to make it truly global.

GPS BN: How many countries today?

IZ: We have 15 countries in Europe plus the United States, New Zealand and South Africa. We are looking at expending our footprint in Europe and we are also looking at Asian markets and Americas as a whole. There will be more announcements soon, stay tuned.

Our strategy is to make HD traffic a standard service from high end to mid end solutions. It is not yet feasible for lower end product due to the cost of connectivity, but we are working towards that, it could happen in the future.

GPS BN: HD Traffic is rolling out this quarter in the US, correct?

IZ: In the US the service is live now. We are testing it, it seems to work very well. We have high expectations because we can make a service offer that is unmatched.

GPS BN: You are looking at expanding globally, but thus far HD traffic is not available outside of a TomTom branded navigation product. Is there a strategy of not selling HD traffic to third parties?

IZ: TomTom has been primarily focusing on rolling out the service in as many countries as possible. The whole idea behind our traffic manifesto is to reduce congestion for everybody, therefore we are willing to license HD Traffic to every stakeholder.

In addition, we have been building our licensing group in the last year, and this is where we also resell HD Traffic. We have high expectations in selling HD Traffic to licensees but it is something that takes time.