from Hacker News

Meta, Microsoft, AWS and TomTom launch Overture Foundation for open map data

by bouk on 12/15/22, 12:26 PM with 56 comments

  • by darrmit on 12/15/22, 2:00 PM

    Surely someone here knows better than me, but it seems Google's dominance in this space is not due to pure mapping data (although that also seems to be the best in the world) - it's due to the massive amounts of data the join in with the mapping data to provide real-time road closure and traffic information as well as what the "best route" is.

    Apple Maps has taken me some really strange routes (I live in a rural area) while Google consistently picks the route you'd expect.

    I've been hoping for a Google alternative because their monopoly on mapping that leads to further data collection is terrifying, but I'm bearish on the idea of pure mapping data being it.

  • by thefz on 12/15/22, 3:10 PM

    > The founding companies are planning to engage in collaborative map-building programs, meshing data from myriad open data sources and knocking it into a format that’s consistent, standardized, and fit for use in production systems and applications. This will include channeling data from long-established projects such as OpenStreetMap, in addition to open data provided by municipalities.

    Interested to see if OpenStreetMap could benefit from this as well.

  • by Terretta on 12/15/22, 1:54 PM

    > ... the program is driven by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Facebook’s parent company Meta, Microsoft, and Dutch mapping company TomTom ... Google is a notable omission from the Overture Maps Foundation’s founding members...

    > Moreover, with the iPhone arriving around the same time, a combination that brought maps and navigation into the pockets of millions of people globally, this had a monumental impact on incumbents such as TomTom ...

    > In the intervening years, TomTom has tried to evolve, striking map and data partnerships with the likes of Uber and Microsoft ...

    - - -

    Super weird this article keeps carrying on about TomTom and listing half of FAANG, even mentioning impact of iPhone, yet not mentioning Apple using TomTom worldwide from 2012 till 2020.

    Apple Maps was essentially pure TomTom at the start, and still relying on TomTom for USA up until 2 years ago when US went Apple native, and (as far as I know, I haven't driven outside US since pandemic) is still using TomTom internationally.

    Article about dropping TomTom in domestic US in 2020:

    “…less a rollout of fresh features than an important step toward the company's own mapping independence”

    https://archive.vn/tGmQc

    A 2012 discussion of TomTom the day after Maps launched:

    “Does Apple Maps sound the death knell for TomTom? Probably not, although it might mean less people want to buy TomTom for iPhone. TomTom will surely have factored any negatives into the positives of its licensing agreement: this is how business works.”

    https://www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/tomtom/115879-tomtom-s...

  • by pantulis on 12/15/22, 1:50 PM

    "Google is a notable omission from the Overture Maps Foundation’s founding members. "

    Also Apple seems to be missing there.

  • by elaus on 12/15/22, 1:49 PM

    I'm curious to see how open that data will be in the end: Is everything public domain, who can change the data and will information flow back to OSM? What is the distinction to OSM?

  • by molly_radstowe on 12/15/22, 2:15 PM

    To me, this is the Google alternative that we have been waiting for. Open, collaborative, but with some real money attached to it. I hope it works.

  • by spdustin on 12/15/22, 3:58 PM

    I’d like to see them commit to free map updates for the navigation systems preinstalled in many vehicles. Every car I’ve owned in the past 18 years has used TomTom maps, and has charged for annual map updates. In the last 12 years, you’ve just downloaded them onto a USB drive and your head unit recognized the data. The download data seems to be encrypted, and sometimes even vehicle-specific. My guess is the vehicle specific data is to account for features related to physical buttons on the head unit, GPS antenna input, and signals used for dead-reckoning.

  • by brylie on 12/15/22, 1:52 PM

    It will be interesting to see how the data is licensed. E.g., will they use a Copyleft license compatible with OpenStreetMaps or a more permissive license like CC-by? If the license permits, it will also be interesting to see how the schema interoperability with OSM develops to build on that enormous data source.

  • by liotier on 12/15/22, 3:32 PM

    Daylight distribution and building footprint were toes dipped in the pool… Now everyone jumped in. ODbL-aware, both upstream & downstream of Openstreetmap. Fun times ahead at the interface between their industrial scale automation and Openstreetmap craft mapping !

  • by elforce002 on 12/15/22, 2:57 PM

    Interesting. We're using maps API at work and We're looking for other solutions just in case google goes nuts hiking it's prices, etc...

  • by ChrisLTD on 12/15/22, 3:00 PM

    It'd be great if Apple would throw their weight behind this effort.