Google deal with car manufacturers – a heavy blow not only for TomTom

Published on: September 19, 2018 / Updated on: September 19, 2018 – Author: Konrad Wolfenstein

TomTom's shares plummeted by 30% after it was announced that Google will equip the vehicles of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance with its navigation system in the future.

The sad decline of a once ingenious technology

Until now, automakers had preferred their own or independent navigation systems – and thus TomTom. Now Google has gained a foothold, likely breaking the dam. Other vehicle manufacturers will follow sooner or later. Google's power with its Google Maps and Google Earth technology is simply too great, as the charts (below) from Google Trends impressively demonstrate.

TomTom and Google Assistant

With the integration of the Android infotainment system, Google has once again taken a strategically important step. This marks another milestone in its corporate strategy, as the integration of Google Assistant is also intended to give it a prominent role in the still-nascent market of voice assistant systems. It's a smart move, as other intelligent voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Microsoft's Cortana are left behind and will likely lose market share if they don't make further strategic decisions themselves to buck Google's lead.

The Auto Alliance expects to sell around 14 million vehicles together in 2022 – more than any other industry alliance in this sector.

Analyst Jos Versteeg from asset manager InsingerGilissen: “This makes TomTom’s efforts to compete with Google and Apple in the automotive industry pretty hopeless.”

When Google launched Google Maps in early 2005, TomTom had no truly sustainable strategy to counter it

TomTom Visibility Index – When TomTom was still the name synonymous with route planning

Which voice assistant is currently in the lead?

Which voice assistant dominates in which regions?