TomTom co-founds Overture Maps Foundation to build Open Map Data

As map data supports an ever-increasing amount of use cases, the requirements for new map content, completeness, accuracy, and freshness are virtually limitless. To support industry demands, the pooling of resources and the creation of a global map standard is needed. The Overture Maps Foundation intends to realise a global entity reference system and structured data schema. This will facilitate an ecosystem of users and contributors to share map data in an efficient way.   

“Collaborative mapmaking is central to TomTom’s strategy. The Overture Maps Foundation provides the framework to accelerate our goals,” Harold Goddijn, CEO of TomTom said. “Overture’s standardisation and interoperable base map is fundamental to bringing geospatial information from the world together. TomTom’s Maps Platform will leverage the combination of the Overture base map, a broad range of other data, and TomTom’s proprietary data in a continuously integrated and quality-controlled product that serves a broad range of use cases, including the most demanding applications like advanced navigation, search, and automated driving.”  

TomTom customers using TomTom’s new Maps Platform will benefit from fast integration and quality control of map data as well as a broad range of online services including map visualisation, search, routing, navigation, traffic information, and TomTom’s digital cockpit for car makers. TomTom’s next generation platform for mapmaking is designed with the objectives of the Overture Maps Foundation in mind. TomTom will share its knowledge and insights to advance an open ecosystem around collaborative mapmaking.    

Overture expects to release its first data in the first half of 2023. While Overture has been founded by AWS, Meta, Microsoft, and TomTom, the goal is to expand participation and contributions to include a wide range of organisations including service providers and governmental organisations.