How TomTom's AI & ML Maps can Impact the Built Environment
Maps are essential to countless apps and services and can help to make more sustainable decisions.
Visualising cities and landscapes can help policymakers and the public to understand the relationships between factors affecting sustainability.
Disaster planning, habitat mapping and environmental impact assessments are all reliant on these complex diagrams.
As TomTom’s SVP of Engineering Maps, Michael Harrell leads the development of the TomTom Maps Content.
As a champion of location-aware technology, he is passionate about using geolocation to improve everyday life. He firmly believes that it will take the world to map the world.
“This belief drives my mission to transform the mapping industry by fostering collaboration, openness and shared innovation,” he says.
In this interview, Michael shares insights on TomTom’s tech-driven journey and impact.
Can you tell me about TomTom’s journey?
TomTom began as a startup in the Netherlands, building on the Dutch heritage of cartography.
We quickly grew into a major tech company, redefining personal navigation and creating one of the fastest selling consumer products in history.
More than 30 years and billions of drives later, we’re using this expertise to help solve the world’s toughest mobility challenges.
In 2022, our story of global collaboration came to life when TomTom launched Orbis Maps, which combines open data, proprietary data and advanced AI-driven validation for a wide range of commercial applications.
By partnering with the Overture Maps Foundation and the OpenStreetMap community, we set forth a new standard in mapmaking to bolster a future of location-based innovation and industry-wide collaboration.
This leap into a new generation of mapping technology was well overdue, as a rapidly changing world demanded more powerful geospatial data.
Together with our customers, partners and global team, we’ve built a new generation of maps that are richer and more versatile than ever before.
Now, our unique open map empowers global automakers, businesses, governments and developers to bring their visions to life – creating safer, greener cities and smarter mobility.
How are maps used to power apps and services today?
Maps make the world go around. It’s rare to go a day without relying on apps and services that involve a location-based component, whether that’s in our personal or professional lives.
Even if we don't see them, they’re always there, working hard to bring us routes, locations, information, context and more.
Digital maps help us understand the world and move through it at a speed that would have been unimaginable 100 years ago. How fast, how easy, and how far we can navigate the world is heavily reliant on the detail and accuracy of maps.
Digital maps are integral to the development of technologies and services that keeps the world turning: the car you drive, the package you ordered, the app you used to order your dinner and the photos you tag and post on social media – all these things rely on deeply embedded maps to work at their best.
Demand for maps will only grow as companies innovate further and faster for customers, bringing new products and services to market.
What challenges face companies and developers innovating with location technologies and digital maps?
As maps now require exponentially greater amounts of data, there is no single company capable of meaningfully mapping the entire world with the level of detail required.
A few companies in the world build maps of the entire globe, with TomTom being one of them.
Each of these companies has developed its own maps within its own silo.
Given limited resources, each of these companies prioritise mapping efforts based on where their business interests lie.
For instance, Europe and North America are significantly better mapped than parts of Africa, primarily due to the number of customers utilising the maps in those regions, which influences these companies’ priorities. This is not the best way to work in the mapping world.
As a result, organisations across both the private and public sector have faced significant limitations. Companies leveraging geospatial data have had to develop and maintain their own map stacks.
This has quickly turned into a balancing act, juggling data from disparate sources that all reference different base maps, and trying to find ways to make it function together.
Not only is this a drain on time, it’s also costly, with money and resource spent on adapting maps and fitting data to a specific structure to make it work.
Over time, systems have grown increasingly complex and difficult to manage, since these maps have been altered and adapted to work for other use cases.
Why is TomTom collaborating with AWS, Meta and Microsoft on the Overture Foundation?
Nowadays, those innovating with geospatial data must choose from the available mapping providers to determine what solution will meet their specific needs.
What has been missing is a solution where all companies and devices can collaborate and communicate through a single digital representation of the physical world.
As a founding member of the Overture Foundation, TomTom is working with companies like Meta, Microsoft and AWS to build a reliable, easy-to-use and interoperable open base map.
Overture is incorporating mapping data from multiple sources, such as member organisations like TomTom, civic organisations and open data sources.
While these companies may compete in the cloud space, the fact they’re coming together to create a standardised base map shows just how fundamental the problem is to the geospatial industry.
The shared vision for developing this industry base map is to drive collaboration and innovation across crucial industries and communities.
Why are open standards so important?
Many companies are eager to use open data, but without a common base map, they often end up spending a lot of money just trying to merge data from different platforms.
This alone is a good enough reason to partner with a map provider that operates on an open base map and open standard. It saves time, effort, and a lot of headaches when businesses want to integrate their own data, combine it with other sources or add new features and map details.
Organisations that leverage open standards can benefit from a seamlessly integrated digital stack, which means time and resource isn’t needlessly spent on resolving or conflating data from across platforms.
Crucially, this will free up time and resource for developers to focus on creating new services and products that are specific to customers’ needs and wants.
Adopting a common open standard means data becomes much easier to share and work with, serving as a catalyst for innovation.
How can AI-based mapping technologies enhance innovation?
AI is making a tangible difference to processes, workflows and productivity across many industries – and the same is true for mapmaking.
Traditional maps, including early digital versions, were static snapshots – reliant on manual updates, outdated and unable to reflect real-time changes.
The introduction of GPS and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) helped bridge this gap by providing interactive, updatable maps, but still struggled to keep pace with a rapidly changing world.
Today, AI is redefining what maps can do.
Powered by ML and fuelled by data, from sensors to satellite imagery and floating car data, mapping platforms have become living systems.
They update in real-time, predict conditions before they arise and offer granular insights.
This means developers can process data and turn insights into meaningful updates and features far quicker.
With machines laying the groundwork, there’s more time for developers to focus on the accuracy and relevancy of maps.
Ultimately, human oversight will always be necessary to ensure there are no errors and to improve algorithms.
But AI will transform the way we understand maps, leading to new approaches in how we use and develop these.
This will pave the way for greater innovation, enabling companies to deliver fresh services and products to customers.