TomTom’s co-founder Peter-Frans Fauwels this week announced that he believes portable navigation devices (for example standalone units) only have ten years left in the market – as car manufacturers will soon ensure that navigation is at the heart of all new motor vehicles as a factory-installed standard asset.
Fauwel’s was talking to T3.com regarding the launch of TomTom’s new Map Paradise promotion project – of which you can see a Youtube video further down the page. He told T3.com that “maps in cars will become increasingly important” and that the “navigation experience is the first step and the real time availability of maps already helps manage congestion and traffic flow but we believe that having the car use more powerful maps will help manufacturers make car safer and smarter in the future.”
Fauwel’s also had some over views on what the future of motoring could entail, with visions of driverless cars and much safer roads – and also interestingly said that he does not believe smartphone navigation to be the future for drivers – instead believing that all cars will come with an advanced GPS device inside. Fauwel’s said that:
“We believe car navigation lives and belongs in the car not on a smarphone. Deeper integration into the vehicle and will deliver the best user experience.”
At GPS Bites we tend to agree with this statement, and believe that as more cars start to come with in-dash navigation devices as standard, the use of smartphone navigation will start to reduce. The last ten years has already seen many of the leading manufacturers reach out to companies such as Garmin and TomTom who provide OEM services and supply the GPS technology that sits in some car brands.
Typically though, GPS embedded in a car has tended to be an optional extra that the driver has to pay the car dealer to have – which is why the devices are not yet as wide spread as they possibly could be. Perhaps though, the OEM market will become increasingly more important to companies such as TomTom – to not only counter the smartphone threat to GPS, but could also be helped in the future as the price and size of technical components become less and less.
Want to Update the Maps in Your Car?
If you already have in-car dashboard navigation and wish to update the maps on your system, please visit our map updates section which includes details on most major car brands and manufacturers.
