TomTom has been selected by Dutch national road authority Rijkswaterstaat for collaboration with the newly developed national traffic innovation centre, in partnership with traffic and logistics IT specialist Simacan.

Founded by Rijkswaterstaat and other parties, the centre is a development area built for traffic management to enable smarter mobility.

TomTom has upgraded its traffic management centre products to help managers capture and take action on changes in traffic flow, and Dutch-based company Simacan has merged various road authority databases with TomTom’s products.

"TomTom and Simacan are innovating traffic management in ways that will ultimately serve the needs of connected and self-driving cars."

TomTom will work in collaboration with the traffic innovation centre and Simacan to develop more joint applications to enhance road infrastructure and technology.

Speaking about the collaboration, TomTom head of traffic Ralf-Peter Schäfer said: "It enables us to take the next step in improving traffic flow for everyone.

"TomTom and Simacan are innovating traffic management in ways that will ultimately serve the needs of connected and self-driving cars."

The Netherlands intends to focus on car drivers and be the forerunner in smart mobility.

Simacan chief executive officer Rob Schuurbiers said: "Significant benefits for road authorities arise when bringing together different information sources into a full, operational overview."

This traffic management project complements the transition routes of Rijkswaterstaat’s ‘Better informed on the road’ roadmap and the new traffic innovation centre as a base to facilitate this development.

Traffic innovation centre director Laurens Schrijnen said: "We see great potential for road authorities in this new business arrangement with TomTom.

"This initiative paves the way for new and innovative use cases that will improve overall traffic management."