We accelerate the ability for automotive companies and Tier-1s to launch higher levels of autonomy in urban settings with this new map, while at the same time collaborating with them on using vehicle observations for our maps – to understand and improve the accuracy of the features that self-driving vehicles critically depend on for safe operations.
So, that is our new map. And now, I will hand it over to Antoine and Mike, who’ll tell you a bit more about the business implications of this.
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The best analogy, I tell people, we keep saying that self-driving cars are going to be right around the corner. It's going to be a few years out, and then a few years come, and it'll be five years out. And okay, maybe it'll be 10 years out. We keep predicting it, but it never gets here. The reason for this is because of the options I mentioned previously. If you want to get into self driving, you have to build the end-to-end system yourself. You have to spend significant dollars on just redoing what's already been done. Just to add that little extra piece of secret sauce.
The ecosystem we can create, it invites everyone in to collaborate. Gain the capabilities from the base, license the content and capabilities you need, and then focus your resources solely on the next innovation that you want and are trying to achieve.
It's great for TomTom, because we can focus our innovation toward staying multiple steps ahead with our sensor data and our capabilities. But it also provides a huge opportunity for everyone in the industry to do the same for their area of expertise. TomTom's Maps Platform is the first proprietary mapping solution to embrace open mapping, bringing the best of all these worlds together.
This is how TomTom beats Google and the competition. With the sensor data and unique algorithms for specialized use cases, mapping can no longer be done alone. TomTom's Maps Platform is providing the answer, bringing the collective resources of the world together on a non-differentiating base map, and allowing everybody to focus their efforts where it matters. I know I know, everybody's probably thinking after I said it, how can anyone beat Google? They have what seems to be a bottomless pit of money to spend due to a very successful advertising business. But even Google can't go against the collective resources of the world. And the partners we've talked with thus far are really excited about the platform, it has finally given them the answer they've been looking for. This is why I'm so excited, and I'm not the only one.
TomTom has got a ton of excitement happening, particularly for those we've told during the hiring process. We now have over half a dozen directors and VPs that have come from Amazon, over half a dozen directors and VPs that have come from Google, a few of them from Uber, and I'm sure I'm missing a few other tech companies. All in the last two years. Combine this with our TomTom veterans, that have been making maps for decades, and you have an exceptional team of expertise. It's a really unique time here, because it is so exciting, this new platform and ecosystem.
We've seen a big influx from all over the tech community, which has shifted how we do development. We are now moving in to truly being a leading tech company, which is really exciting here at TomTom. Someone asked me, why did I join TomTom? For me personally, I joined because I couldn't imagine reading about this, or watching this happen from the sidelines. I am so happy and feel very lucky that I've been able to be here to tell you about such a big ground-breaking thing that's happening in the mapping industry, and to be a part of that announcement. And with that, I'm going to hand it off to my partner here, Laurens, to tell you a bit more about how our map is getting better, and the great ways we're using and leveraging our sensor data.