Germany: Navigation and mapping company TomTom announced that it has acquired Berlin-based autonomous driving start-up Autonomos. The acquisition will strengthen TomTom’s position in autonomous driving.
Autonomos has provided Research & Development consultancy services for automated vehicle assistance systems and has built up expertise and technologies in the process, including a full demonstration-level autonomous driving software stack, 3D sensor technology, and digital image processing.
“We are proud to have been selected by the world leader in map making for bringing autonomous driving together to the next level,” says Tinosch Ganjineh, CEO and co-founder of Autonomos.
With the acquisition of Autonomos, TomTom is joined by a team that traces its lineage back to the DARPA Grand Challenge competitions. The team will advance TomTom’s map-based products for autonomous driving applications.
Having an in-house autonomous driving stack will enable TomTom to better serve customers with its products, including its HD map, RoadDNA localization technology, as well as its navigation, traffic and other cloud services.
“This is an important development for TomTom as it will help us to continue to strengthen our capabilities for the future of driving and expand our knowledge and expertise,” says Harold Goddijn, CEO and co-founder of TomTom. “With this deal we are further positioning ourselves as one of the leaders in autonomous driving.”
“TomTom’s technology combined with our intelligent driving know-how are a perfect match to make the dream of self-driving cars become a reality.”
