Tomtom Introduces New Navigation Engine – NavKit

TomTom today launches its new navigation engine, NavKit. It will power all future TomTom navigation products and will be available for licensing to automotive and enterprise customers.

The NavKit navigation engine offers new levels of flexibility. The configurable component architecture has been designed to enable rapid integration. NavKit has programming interfaces for adding a customised user interface, porting to any operating system and integrating navigation services. As a result, the development of a connected navigation system on any device platform becomes far quicker and simpler.

The new NavKit engine incorporates all the navigation logic of an on-board turn-by-turn navigation application. Every element has been enhanced to deliver an improved user experience including route planning, free text search, 2D map browsing and 3D guidance view, map-matched positioning and real-time guidance.

“The automotive industry’s next challenge is to create a seamless connected car experience” says Harold Goddijn, CEO at TomTom. “To help our customers achieve this, we created NavKit, a flexible, future-proof navigation platform. NavKit makes the creation of connected navigation solutions easier and faster than ever before.”

NavKit’s architecture will allow customers and industry partners to replace components in a modular way. Its new routing engine achieves faster and more accurate dynamic routing, both on TomTom’s maps and on the new industry-standard Navigation Data Standard (NDS) maps*. Additionally, it provides better routes around traffic and fully supports TomTom Traffic, Version 6.0, including incident duration predictions and jam tail warnings. The new free text search engine provides easier and faster address and POI search. A new map visualisation engine greatly improves 2D map browsing and introduces an innovative 3D guidance view.

NavKit has been developed according to the highest standards and is regularly assessed by TIOBE**.

The first commercial product powered by NavKit is the TomTom GO,

For more information please visit www.tomtom.com/launch

Features of NavKit

Free text search engine: Provides drivers with free text search and suggestions across addresses and POIs, supports also POI category synonyms, abbreviations and special characters.

Fast and exact route planning: NavKit plans a route faster and more accurately than standard routing techniques, by using an advanced routing technology based on pre-calculated routes.

3D Maps: Provides drivers with a 3D view of their route, optionally including 3D city models and 3D landmarks, optimising their driving experience.

Advanced alternative routes: NavKit suggests better alternative routes around traffic and fully supports TomTom Traffic Version 6.0, including incident duration prediction.

IQ Routes: Drivers will know the best route for the time of day, thanks to TomTom’s extensive GPS probe data coverage.

Itinerary management: Routes with waypoints can be stored, edited and deleted. This enables users to manage itineraries and reuse routes that they have previously created.

Pinch to Zoom: Drivers can use touch screen technology to adjust the zoom level of their map.

Map configuration options: OEMs can adjust the appearance of their map to suit their personal preferences. This includes changing the colour of their map, textures, the width of the road and the camera viewpoint.

Daily driving assistance: NavKit allows home, recent destinations and favourite destinations to be stored, enabling quick and easy access to these destinations. If the driver hasn’t set a destination, TomTom will still advise on the traffic situation around the driver’s current position.

LIVE Services: Provides drivers with instant road information when they need it. Includes Traffic 6.0, TomTom Places and Safety Alerts.

Map Share: Free daily map changes from the Map Share community. Includes dynamic changes such as blocked roads and new speed limits.

NavKit SDK: Provides documentation, interface specifications, tutorials and a complete navigation UI including source code to provide application developers with the tools to implement their own connected navigation application. A new NavKit SDK is released every quarter. Companies interested in using NavKit can request an evaluation license to get access to the latest SDK.