Mapmaker TomTom evolves for self-driving future

Later this year, the first trucks will hit the road with software and maps from TomTom that will automatically adjust speed when a curve or climb comes up. The products, aimed at cutting fuel use for now, are part of the ever-expanding technology needed for driverless vehicles -- if and when they become ubiquitous. TomTom CEO Harold Goddijn is not losing any sleep over when that might be.

"For us, that's not a problem, because we're already moving to increasingly higher levels of automation," Goddijn said in an interview. "You could say that we're already there with semiautonomous driving, and the reality is that we'll transition through stages towards a fully autonomous future."

Goddijn, who has been leading the company since 2001, may not have much choice. TomTom, which has years of experience creating static maps -- the kind embedded in traditional car navigation screens -- is contending with the terminal decline of what used to be its core business -- personal navigation devices. Also, it's vying with companies such as HERE and Alphabet Inc.'s Google in the race to dominate the "dynamic," or HD maps, market.