TomTom is all about the in-dash navigation anymore and has announced yet another car that will feature its Live services. The Fiat 500 will come with the Uconnect 5″ Radio Nav LIVE system which will not be available in the United States. This system will feature yearly map updates and the same sorts of navigation things that you’d expect to see in a portable TomTom unit including live speed cameras, weather alerts and local POI searches. Although personally, I’m not sure why you’d want one.

According to the release, the TomTom Live services will be available to consumer for free for the first 5 years and is “the most comprehensive package to drivers ever launched in a Fiat 500…” Of course, I didn’t see any particular notice as to how much the services would cost after the five years are up, but since most people really only keep their cars for a little over five years nowadays, I suppose that might not be as relevant. The press release also said the new navigational system will also be available in the Fiat 500x and other units which will be sold in various countries across Europe. read more

TomTom has been working fluidly towards getting its products embedded in the dashboards of various manufacturers including Jeep and Volkswagen. In the last few years, the company has signed multiple deals and its products have begun shipping inside various different car models. Well, it looks like the Dutch-based navigational company is going a step further with access to the cloud.

Last week, TomTom announced that its in-dash navigational entertainment systems can now upload, download and read information stored in the cloud. This capability will greatly extend the reach of the TomTom system and allow users to seamlessly navigate and share information and routes across devices. Pre-planning trips on websites, tweaking it on a phone and then sending it to your car’s navigation will now be possible. read more

I can’t tell you how many GPS fails I’ve read that revolve around a commercial driver using the wrong GPS for their small commercial vehicle. Trucks and vehicles that are even slightly larger than normal must not only be driven differently, but sometimes even require different routes depending on the area.

TomTom recently announced that it will soon be releasing a GPS designed specifically for commercial trucking and driving in Europe. The creatively named TomTom Trucker 6000 will feature customized routes for commercial drivers and will allow users to select the vehicle type, size, weight and cargo in order to find fast, usable routes. As is becoming standard, the TomTom Trucker 6000 features an interactive pinch, zoom and swipe screen. The screen on the device measures 6 inches. read more

Ever since the Jetsons first rode around in their very own self-driving car in the 60s, we have been working towards making transportation safer and easier. In the last couple of years in particular, great leaps have been made in the realm of self-driving cars with several companies already testing vehicles on closed tracks. But, are self-driving cars really going to happen? Dutch navigation company TomTom certainly thinks so, and it wants in.

Earlier this week TomTom CEO Harold Goddijn told Reuters that TomTom’s goal is to become the main provider of technology for self-driving cars in the future. That’s a pretty lofty goal for a company which, for the last seven years, has posted very little profit for an international corporation. But, as one of the three largest digital mapping companies in the world—the others being Google and Nokia’s HERE Maps—TomTom certainly has my vote.

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According to the first quarter results posted by TomTom earlier this week, the company has been steadily losing profits in its automotive and other segments. So, I can’t say I was surprised to read that the company has continued reaching out to other corporations and pursuing partnerships in order to further its business. read more

Yesterday, TomTom released its annual Traffic Index which analyzes more than 200 cities around the world to determine traffic congestion in specific cities and areas during certain times of the day. Unsurprisingly, evening congestion was the most congested time of day pretty much everywhere around the world. In fact, the average commuter spent an extra 100 hours sitting in evening rush hour traffic in 2014.

Here are the top 10 cities that TomTom found to have the worst traffic in 2014: read more