Volkwasgen and TomTom Sign MOU for Automated Driving Systems

TomTom and Volkswagen Group Research today announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to join forces for the development of Highly Automated Driving (HAD) systems. To make things simpler to understand, the goal of this research co-operation is to jointly develop the digital map that is essential for automated driving.

The partnership will see TomTom's expertise in map content and map making with Volkswagen's know-how about the car as well as automated driving. Considering that the development of automated driving systems is highly complex; TomTom and Volkswagen aim to solve a part of this puzzle by jointly developing it.

"Partnering with Volkswagen Group Research to develop the future of HAD reaffirms TomTom's position as a key partner in the automotive market," said Harold Goddijn, CEO TomTom. "TomTom's mapping expertise provides the precise data and scalable technology platform needed to enable highly automated driving in cars."

Today the map that is used for navigation, including geometry, street names, and addressing, is not sufficient for the future needs of automated driving. The car's computer will require much more accurate and up-to-date information about its location and environment than is provided today. This includes for example more detailed information lane markings and traffic lights.

TomTom and Volkswagen Research are working on a concept based on the "Navigation Data Standard" (NDS) to deliver scalable and cost effective automated driving systems that do not require expensive hardware.