Tom Tom: Travel

TomTom’s history reveals a shift from selling (PNDs) to selling services (traffic, maps, APIs) to selling data ecosystems (automotive telematics). This mirrors what Zuboff (2019) calls “surveillance capitalism” – but with a key difference: TomTom has not built a consumer advertising business. Instead, its model is B2B data licensing .

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This paper examines the trajectory of TomTom from a standalone hardware manufacturer to a geospatial data and connected mobility service provider. Focusing on its role in transforming travel behavior, we argue that TomTom’s evolution mirrors the broader shift from deterministic route-following to dynamic, data-driven travel decision-making. Through analysis of product generations (PNDs to smartphone apps, fleet management, and high-definition (HD) maps for autonomous vehicles), we explore impacts on driver autonomy, traffic flow optimization, and the commodification of location data. The paper concludes that TomTom’s current pivot toward an open mapping platform represents a critical juncture in the political economy of travel navigation. TomTom’s history reveals a shift from selling (PNDs)