Today’s cars are shaped by disruption. They are defined less by what sits under the hood and more by the software that shapes the experience behind the wheel. As AI, electrification, connected services and driver expectations advance, carmakers face a new challenge: how to build vehicles resilient to change and that keep improving long after they leave the factory.

When public agencies or insurance businesses choose traffic data on price alone, the real cost isn’t just what shows up in the procurement line, it’s what shows up in the decisions that follow.

As the Football World Championship 2026 nears its end, its impact extends far beyond the stadium. New TomTom traffic data reveals rising congestion at several key U.S.–Mexico land border crossings, highlighting how a global sporting event can reshape mobility patterns across an entire region. Using proprietary traffic data from six major gateways — Calexico, Otay Mesa, San Ysidro, Santa Teresa, El Paso and Laredo — we compared conditions during the opening weeks of the tournament with the same period in 2025 to identify how cross-border travel behavior changed as fans, teams and tournament-related activity.

It's hard to predict what will happen inside MetLife Stadium on July 19. But with the right data, predicting what happens on the roads outside is a different story. By analyzing traffic conditions during the seven Football World Cup matches played at MetLife Stadium so far, TomTom has identified three patterns likely to shape the day of the Final.

Insurance is a business built on risk, probability and trust. From underwriting policies to validating claims, auto and property insurers rely on accurate information to assess risk exposure and make fair decisions. Yet in an increasingly connected and fast-moving world, traditional data sources alone are no longer enough. As insurers face growing pressure to reduce fraud, improve operational efficiency and deliver more personalized pricing, the industry is turning to richer, real-time data sources to gain deeper insight into risk.

Hosting big events like a soccer world cup or a major music festival is a huge undertaking for any city or state. Thousands arrive, moving between airports, hotels, stadiums and tourist hotspots — changing the typical traffic patterns. Fans, VIPs, officials, and emergency services all have different priorities and need to move between different locations, while making sure residents’ daily lives aren’t disrupted.

The automotive world doesn’t slow down. The technology shaping and driving the industry is ushering evolution after evolution. Vehicle software is levelling up, bringing us cars with machine learning, end-to-end perception models and more intelligent in-cabin technology. This is the dawn of the AI-defined vehicle.

When maps can provide trusted and verified ground truth across entire continents, why wouldn't you use one as part of your automated driving software stack?

Transport networks are the complex circulatory systems of our cities, states and countries. When working well, they enable the economy, social connection and the movement of goods and services. But when a sudden disruption hits, whether it’s a flash flood, major event or infrastructure failure, these same systems can rapidly become a source of difficulty. Congestion escalates as mobility becomes most urgent, freight delays spread across supply chains and emergency vehicles struggle to reach people who need help most.

Transportation gives our cities life, enabling people and goods to flow through increasingly complex urban environments. But in the past decade, congestion has intensified across the United States. It’s getting harder to predict and more expensive to leave unchecked. At the same time, cities, governments and planners now have access to smarter, data-driven tools to manage today’s rising mobility challenges.

For more than 15 years, the TomTom Traffic Index has monitored the health of our roads, capturing its minute-by-minute pulse to assemble a year-long overview of how vehicles have moved through hundreds of our world’s major cities. This year’s edition tells a painfully familiar story. As cities grow and journeys multiply, the challenge of managing city road networks continues to loom over municipalities, town planners and transit authorities. The Traffic Index confirms that keeping traffic moving has never been more difficult. How can we keep tackling such a challenge? With data, lots of data.

Every day, millions use the roads to get to their destinations. Despite advances in vehicle technology, emergency response and roadway design, drivers and passengers continue to be vulnerable. As the way we move changes, traditional safety approaches can’t keep up with evolving risks. Today, agencies are turning to smarter, data-driven approaches — using real-time insights to spot dangers before incidents happen and build safer, more resilient transportation networks. Around the world, cities have seen that with the right data and proactive strategies, Vision Zero is within reach.

With AI taking on a larger role in automated driving (AD), expectations of what autonomous vehicles should be capable of are rising. Vehicles are expected to go beyond reacting to what's ahead, and even predict what will happen next. In this growing reliance on neural networks, maps have increasingly been labeled as optional, or even obsolete. But as with every new tech, there's a path to evolution until things work perfectly. The modern world of safe automated driving still depends on a contextual awareness and grounded understanding of what lies ahead — how the road is shaped, how traffic typically behaves and what situations are likely to unfold beyond the range of onboard sensors.

Being ranked fourth for R&D investment in the Netherlands alongside companies like Booking.com, Philips and ASML is an amazing achievement — but it doesn’t surprise me. It reflects what TomTom’s become: an organization built on a bold strategy, bolder ambition and long-term innovation.

When I look back at the last two years of airport-area traffic data, I see a story unfolding in chapters, starting with the major holidays. Those weeks gave us a preview of just how differently airports respond to the same national moments, and they set the stage for what we would see throughout 2025.

Smarter cars, happier drivers: The real-world impact of AI assistants.