*Justin* schreef op 14 mei 2015 21:26:
[...]
Zie de onderstreepte stukjes.
--------------
FEBRUARY 12, 2015 / 1:00 PM, TOM2.AS - Q4 2014 TomTom NV Earnings Call
© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.
The cash flow used in investing activities for the full year 2014 was EUR107 million, which was an increase of EUR16 million year on year. The majority of the investments we made related to our new transaction-based map making platform; the navigation engine NavKit; customer-specific investments in automotive; and also, the acquisitions we made in telematics.
CapEx in 2015 is expected to run at similar levels to 2014, if you exclude the acquisitions we made during the year. And the majority of our investments, again, will be allocated to the connected navigation system we're creating for the automotive industry, together with our investments in new map technology, and for the requirements of highly automated driving.
Investments in our new map-making platform, which started in 2011, are fundamental to our future, and will transform our map making from a quarterly best process to one in which our map is continuously releasable. Connected cars can then benefit from continuously updated maps, and they can form the basis of map-dependent safety systems. Those systems over time will evolve and formed the basis of highly automated driving, and eventually the driverless car.
This new platform allows us to manage and handle customer feedback in near real time. In other words, if we make a change to the database we can distribute this change to all our customers, instantly.
TomTom has already a highly cost-effective map-making platform, but further extension of the new platform will allow for further automation, including the ability to feed sensor data from cars into the platform. We believe that, over time, the winning map-making platform will be the platform that delivers real-time maps in the most cost effective way, hence, our continued commitment to ongoing technology development.Stuart Jeffrey - Nomura - AnalystI was wanting to ask about the map. Could you just talk about how you see the benefits of the new map playing out in terms of any revenue opportunities? And also, whether or not, now that it's done, does that mean that your costs, both expensed and capitalized, can start to ease off? Or is there a new project in the works, perhaps, to get the map ready for more ADAS-type functionality? If you could just talk through that, that would be helpful. Thanks.
Harold Goddjin - TomTom NV - CEOStuart, thank you. Yes, the [position of] map -- new platform is not complete. That will take us until the end of the year. But some countries now are completely on the new system; remaining countries will follow before the end of the year. And will that open new revenue opportunities? The answer's yes. I think the increased order intake that we took in 2014 is a clear reflection of the car and see -- looking with interest to those technologies and seeing what they can bring in terms of real-time mapping.
So there's an immediate use case, and that is, of course, that often in car maps are out of date, and it's very hard to update them. It's costly and people don't do it, and it's a major source of dissatisfaction that we want to solve quickly with this new technology and new [one-time] map formats that run in the vehicle. But it goes beyond that.
If we look at the future use of map data in the car then the dependency on those maps will increase, and they will often be part of a security system, whether that is braking ahead of corners, or whether that is actively managing fuel consumption. You can do a lot with an accurate map, but you need to be secure -- you need to be able to say that, that map is actually accurate. The new technology will allow us to do that.
And if we take that further into highly automated driving, where it becomes a really safety-critical element, then you need to revert to this type of technology, otherwise it's not going to work. So it is a foundational element in our future strategy.
Is the investment coming down over time in engineering? I think, once we have done the full transition, we will continue to invest in platform. But we will invest in more automation, so not on the fundamental map platform, but automating a lot of what we're currently manually doing. We want to bring that into the car automatically and detect changes automatically, make changes to the map database automatically. And we believe that's possible. There's exciting possibilities. There's cameras that are now installed in cars, other sensors.
We're working with Robert Bosch in research programs to make that a reality. For instance, speed-sign recognition, we want to do that fully automatic in a closed-loop system. The cameras in the car look at those signs. If there is a difference to what's in the database, an incident is raised that will go automatically in our map-making platform and will be validated and distributed.
So these type of technologies will make maps better, higher quality, but also have the potential to reduce the cost. Now, on the other hand, the requirements on maps will go up. So the other effect of what you see is that the requested precision for digital maps will go up. It needs more detail. 3D lane models are part of that new map. So you have different movements, I think, in the cost of making them.
Cost overall is coming down, requirements are going up. How exactly that will pan out is not yet clear. But what we strongly believe, that is the party with the most cost-effective platform, the best technology, has a good chance to be the winning platform in this industry.Stuart Jeffrey - Nomura - AnalystJust to clarify, a lot of your competitors seem to be driving around using (inaudible), things like that, to get a lot of that automated data already. Is that also what you're doing? Are you at that same stage, or is that something that you still need to get to?
Harold Goddjin - TomTom NV - CEONo, that's what we're doing. We have, in 2014, doubled our vans, the number of vans that we're using. We've equipped them with the latest generation of sensors. We have, with those vans, created the maps that are needed for highly automated driving. And, as a proof of concept, those maps have been tested and worked. As a result, we have filed proposals to standardize that map format in the NDS consortium. That has been adopted as well. We have clearer specification, and
mass production of that -- of those new 3D maps has started.Stuart Jeffrey - Nomura - Analyst Thanks. Thanks very much.
Harold Goddjin - TomTom NV - CEOSo -- but the challenge, Stuart, is not so much doing it once, that is a relatively easy task, is well understood. There's a cost associated to that, but it's all not dramatic. I think the real challenge is how we're going to keep those maps up to date in the future, and that is also part of further research and investment.