Practical use cases sometimes give better insights than long theoretical explanations. This can be seen year after year at the NDS Conference. Juniper Gujral, Product Manager NDS Products at TomTom, reports, for example, on how her company uses NDS.Live. TomTom Orbis Maps is a seamlessly integrated map to support all use cases: from navigation to automation. All data layers in Orbis are accessible through one delivery service, powered by NDS.Live. In her presentation, Gujral talked about the different target groups that providers such as TomTom and other NDS members need to keep in mind to tailor suitable and innovative offers.
Meet Orbis Maps
TomTom specializes in navigation technologyand location-based services. Founded in 1991, the company initially developed software for personal digital assistants (PDAs), but became widely known for its satellite navigation devices. Over the years, the NDS member has expanded its product offerings to include navigation software for smartphones, mapping services used in various industries like automotive, fleet management, and logistics. Furthermore, the company offers telematics solutions for real-time tracking of vehicle fleets as well as data services for location-based applications, such as traffic data and map updates. TomTom has also evolved into providing digital maps and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) for self-driving cars and connected vehicles. One of the newest TomTom offerings is Orbis Maps, developed to simplify integration and accelerate innovation. Map data is available in PBF and NDS.Live.
Focus on user experience
Geolocation in 2024 is much more than only navigation in the car. That is why the various players with their very specific requirements must be taken into account. These include, for example, developers, businesses and various areas of the large automotive environment. Juniper Gujral explains: “For developers, the integration of community and cloud functionality is crucial as it fosters collaboration, accelerates innovation and provides scalability. Enterprises, on the other hand, rely on data freshness and detailed content, such as up-to-date and comprehensive information for enhancing all user experiences. Furthermore, data standardization and consistency are essential to ensure interoperability, enhance safety and development of advanced technologies.” She adds: „For us NDS.Live is a unifying mechanism to meet and exceed all these customer expectations: quality, cloud functionality, data freshness, content richness, configurability, consistency and standardization.”
TomTom uses NDS.Live within a three-step approach: content creation and updates, data delivery services and SDK and end-to-end evaluation.“At TomTom we believe that it takes a world to map a world. Collaboration is key to develop content at that pace reflecting reality. For the past few years, we have made major strides in engineering the first real-time map on earth: Orbis Maps now being live in countries across the globe.”
NDS.Live supports Orbis to be runtime ready. “It is not just about adhering to the NDS.Live specification or about compilation. There is also a huge delivery infrastructure making the tiles and NDS.Live data available to millions of devices.” TomTom uses all the power and specifications of the NDS.Live data services to bring in all the content the customers need. This single endpoint integration in unified map delivery allows for more flexibility integrating and consolidating best data layers into a single standardized NDS.Live map.
TomTom’s proprietary map content will include data enabling users to deliver use cases in enhanced map visualization, search, routing, navigation, traffic, ISA, Safety/ADAS and autonomous driving use cases. Examples of proprietary content include address points, speed limits and restrictions, speed profiles and traffic signs.
Unified map delivery highlights at a glance
“Evaluation is key”
But all of this wouldn’t work if not being tested. Therefor evaluation is key – testing in production and with millions of devices. TomTom focuses on end user experience that can be measured through navigation metrics, POI and addressing metrics. “Tying them into the quality of our map, the quality of our processes and the quality of our delivery processes is a challenge. Through built-in telemetry modules, built-in AI based resolution and feedback we tackle a lot of these issues in an automated manner.” TomTom deploys the three mechanisms drive tests, KPI monitoring and A/B Testing for evaluation – as you can see in the graphic below.
In the NDS.Live Developer Portal you can find out more about NDS.Live.
Here you can watch the complete presentation by Juniper Gujral, Product Manager NDS Products at TomTom, at this year’s NDS conference.
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