MARION WATSON - The family enter a historic vehicle run, from John O'Groats to Land's End.

In this fictional adventure series, TomTom is Tim and Marion's preferred real-time navigation aid. Ever since a road trip across France, to a remote farmhouse in Gap, where they went snowboarding. Their TomTom found the house in pitch darkness, having guided them from Newhaven in the UK, across the English Channel, and then to the ski resort. They also Google Maps, when planning their road trips around the United Kingdom and Europe.

TOMTOM HISTORY

TomTom N.V. is a Dutch multinational developer and creator of location technology and consumer electronics. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom released its first generation of satellite navigation devices to market in 2004. As of 2019, the company has over 4,500 employees worldwide and operations in 29 countries throughout Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas.

The company was founded in Amsterdam in 1991 as Palmtop Software, by Corinne Vigreux, Peter-Frans Pauwels and Pieter Geelen. The company focused on corporate handheld device software before focusing on the consumer market and releasing the first route planning software for mobile devices in 1996. Software was developed mainly for Psion devices and the company was one of the largest developers of Psion software in the late 1990s. Palmtop also worked with Psion in the development of EPOC32. Software was also developed for Palm and Windows CE devices.

In 1999, Vigreux's husband, Harold Goddijn left Psion Netherlands, for which TomTom made software and where Vigreux was previously sales director, to join TomTom. He had previously invested in TomTom. In 2001, the company's brand name changed to TomTom, while its legal name was also changed by 2003.

On 27 May 2005, TomTom listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, valuing the company at nearly €50 million.

In September 2005, TomTom acquired Datafactory AG, a telematics service provider based in Leipzig. Datafactory AG employed around 30 people and realized a turnover of approximately €5 million in 2004 and a small net profit.

In January 2006, TomTom acquired the UK company Applied Generics, forming TomTom Traffic.

In 2008, TomTom acquired Tele Atlas, a digital map maker, for €2.9 billion.

In 2010, they produced an advert saying: "You are not stuck in traffic. You are traffic." A photograph of this was widely circulated on the internet. It became a meme, often with different images and sometimes reworded slightly.

On 11 June 2012, at an event for Apple's iOS 6 preview, TomTom was announced as the main mapping data provider for Apple's revamped iOS 6 "Maps" app, replacing Google Maps.

In 2014, TomTom partnered with Volkswagen Group for joint research on Highly Automated Driving (HAD) systems.

TomTom signed deals to provide their navigation devices to several carmakers including Volkswagen Group, Daimler, Toyota and others.

In late 2015, TomTom extended its deal with Apple and signed a new contract with Uber, in which Uber driver app uses TomTom maps and traffic data in 300 cities worldwide. In May 2018, TomTom launched new portable navigation device the TomTom Go Camper to cater for the requirements of caravan and motorhome users.

In 2020, the company signed a deal with Chinese manufacturer Huawei to use TomTom's map data in Petal Maps, a replacement service to Google Maps for the company's smartphones.

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