Amsterdam, Netherlands - Satellite navigation company TomTom has jumped ahead of its rivals with a plan to gather information from drivers, echoing the "community" approach that has worked for Wikipedia and YouTube.
It's hoping to tap-in to a group of enthusiastic users and cement its leadership in a fast-growing market by asking customers to submit information about traffic flows and inaccuracies in its digital maps.
The strategy, internally dubbed "Navigation 2.0", is similar to the way Amazon.com gathers user reviews and tracks purchases.
Its success rests on TomTom's planned €1.8-billion euro (about R17.5-billion) acquisition of digital mapmaker Tele Atlas - a move that may raise the bar for rivals such as Garmin, but also for companies such as Nokia who are indirect competitors in the navigation area.
Tele Atlas chief executive Alain De Taeye said: "People don't realise there is a mobile community next to the internet community," adding that this included millions of drivers with navigation devices as well as users of cellphones with GPS chips.
TomTom already receives 16 000 pieces of user feedback a month but has not been able to use this information because it does not own the maps.
TomTom chief executive Harold Goddijn said: "There are a lot of customers out there who either think it's fun to participate because their street name is not correct, or their house is not there or they have a restaurant that's not on the map."
Drivers can alert Tele Atlas to blocked roads, name changes or new road layouts faster than the company's surveyors.
The companies will also ask users to grant them access to statistical information gathered by the navigation devices to get a picture of regular traffic flows, which can then help to optimise routing or more accurately forecast travel times. - Reuters