TomTom’s innovative On-Street Parking service, which helps drivers to find a parking space in busy city centers, has won an Automotive Innovation Award (AIA), the Netherlands’s most prestigious awards for innovation in the automotive sector.
Every two years, the AIA Foundation judges companies involved in the automotive sector, and looks at their most innovative technology, services and concepts, selecting just nine finalists based on innovative value, impact on mobility, economic efficiency and applicability. TomTom won the award in the Services category for its On-Street Parking system, which is available as a service to the company’s automotive and licensing customers, and complements the company’s existing Off-Street Parking service.
TomTom uses its vast supply of GPS data to determine where drivers are looking for parking places and at what times of the day. With this information, the On-Street Parking service provides drivers in 25 European cities with the probability of finding a parking spot on a street level, as well as the average search-time for a spot. To further enhance the parking experience, TomTom also publishes pricing and restriction information where available.
“It’s fantastic that our On-Street Parking service has been recognized with an Automotive Innovation Award,” commented Antoine Saucier, managing director of TomTom Automotive. “We created the service to offer drivers peace of mind and a hassle-free parking experience, in addition to helping them to save time and money. On-Street Parking also represents another step toward the future of driving, where the service could be used by autonomous vehicles to seamlessly find a parking spot.”
TomTom has also recently announced that it has extended its long-term relationship with the Mappy location services company. Through this new agreement, Mappy has now increased its access to TomTom traffic data from 10 countries to the whole of Europe, matching its coverage access to TomTom maps.
Mappy is also positioned to make use of TomTom’s next generation map database, leading the way to smarter mobility. French company Mappy is licensing TomTom map and traffic information to power its internet mapping site and consumer smartphone application via app stores. Mappy uses traffic information from TomTom when calculating a route.
“We are very pleased in our relationship with Mappy, and the coverage expansion and next generation technology this new agreement entails,” explained Anders Truelsen, managing director of TomTom’s Licensing Business Unit. “Having access to our map and traffic information throughout Europe, ensures that Mappy customers are better able to leverage the power of location with confidence.”
Bruno Dachary, COO of Mappy, commented, “Our customers rely on dynamic advice for their route planning. By extending our relationship with TomTom, having access to live traffic information displaying incidents, and congestion on a map, assures that we are meeting our customers’ mobility needs.”
