Make a U-turn

[martike]

I’ve noted before on this forum that Mapsonic has some “lateral slippage”. When there are parallel roads it gets confused about which one you’re on, and when it thinks you’re on a side road, but you’re really on a parallel motorway, it can give you some very alarming instructions.
Yesterday I had the best (or worst) yet. Maybe it thought I was on the opposite carriageway and travelling in the wrong direction, but it came as a shock when driving on a motorway at about 150kph to be suddenly told “Make a U-turn”.

[Honda]

I always have a chuckle to myself when it tells me to do a U turn in the most stupid of places!
A good job we are not slaves to the instructions and take GPS as an indicator of where we want to go.

[b34r5]

Not that this is really 'lateral slippage' but mine told me to do a u-turn through a local cemetery the other day.. I really dont think they needed to map out the road layout inside it!
_________________
iPAQ rz1710, ViaMichelin (mapsonic) 3.2,
Kirrio cradle & reciever.

[jblackmore]

I often find private roads are included in the mapping, which is actually quite useful.

I assume they generate/compare mapping using aerial photos, so any tarmac area will often be included, including cemetaries etc :-)

The U-turn feature which makes me chuckle, is the U turns are normally the wrong way for UK roads - obviously intended for driving on the right :-)

[martike]

… and now let’s bring together the two subjects, u-turns and private roads : During the summer my system told me to use a “Police only” mini lay-by on the M40 to turn around in.

[elan2s]

Presumably the wrong allocation of roads (ie private roads/bridleways which the software tries to direct you down) is down to Teleatlas rather than viaMichelin, however it is very frustrating that the feedback page for reporting errors on the Teleatlas website does not acknowledge Mapsonic/ViaMichelin as an option in the drop down box despite viaMichelin being acknowleged as a Partner elsewhere on the site. Also it seems that the only way in which to get updated maps will be to repurchase the whole software package on CD rather than get a download off the website.

It would be great if viaMichelin allowed two additional aspects of the software, firstly that you could set up temporary and permanent "avoids" so that it could avoid routing you down roads you did not wish to travel (either due to mapping errors or because you knew it was closed/very congested).

The second helpful feature would be to allow the start or finish point to be on a private road. For instance my parents live on such a road and whilst in "Pedestrian" mode it will allow me to navigate to their front door in "Car" mode it abandons me at the nearest (as the crow flies) point on a public road which is not necessarily anywhere the access point to their road.

[martike]

A little while ago I asked ViaMichelin about map data updates, and (to my great surprise) I received this reply today :

In reply to your message, we would like to inform you that our map data is updated once a year with each new version by our partner TeleAtlas.

The current cd ViaMichelin Navigation 3 includes the map data from end 2004.

A new version with a map update will be available mid November 2005.

This does seem to confirm that the currently available CD contains map data which is more up-to-date than mine, which came with the version 2.5 CD set.

They do not specifically say how the November 2005 update will be made available and at what cost.

[Honda]

At least there is an upgrade route for Navigation, unlike the old MapSonic.
I am always amazed that motorway services have their road 'networks' identified in Navigation. I had expected to be left high and dry, but the mapping works most times.

[jblackmore]

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