Pellegrino9

Yeah, Google naturally does have heaps of data. But it's mobile device data. It's really hard for them to figure out when people are in cars, buses, bikes, etc. Did you ever see the artist that created "red traffic jams" on google maps by using 100 phones in a kiddy trailer?

TOmTom's mentioned it a bit over the years, having something like 600 million connected devices. Every satnav, car with their maps in, reports traffic data back. Majority cars on the road use TT traffic data I think.

As for routing algos, they vary a lot and the map isnt entirely responsible for how effective they are.

There definitely needs to be an alternate to google, you're right there. Data is the start, hopefully with this news, it consolidates the competition, so its everyone vs google. not just google versus an uncoordinated mass

Following the thread from last week about TomTom's new map and platform, there's more info here about how it's sourcing data for its new map.