Best European Maps?

guy · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 08, 2004 Posts: 13

I know that Tele Atlas and Navtech supply maps to all the major navigation software.

1) Please answer this question, which Navtech supplied navigation software incorporates the latest Navtech maps for EUROPE and then keeps them the most recently updated with reasonably priced map updates, Mapopolis, Destinator, Naviagon or CoPilot?

2) Please answer this second question, which Tele Atlas supplied navigation software incorporates the latest Tele Atlas maps for EUROPE and then keeps them the most recently updated with reasonable priced map updates, TomTom, Navman SmartST, Mapsonic, or Teletype?

Thank you,
Guy

lbendlin · Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2004 11:46 pm Post subject:

You can assume that the products that have brought out new releases most recently do also have the most recent maps

NavTech: Navigon
TeleAtlas: Navman

General map update frequency is once a year. All you can do to really get the latest maps is buy all the upgrades from all the vendors...But this is certainly not the cheapest solution.

Don't forget, these maps cost real money. Someone has to pay that. Cheap maps = old maps
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guy · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 08, 2004 Posts: 13

Thanks,

Ya, I realize that maps aren't cheap and I understand it takes work to make good maps. Thanks for the help

Hmmm, to buy Navman or not to buy Navman Smile

Guy

lbendlin · Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 12:31 am Post subject:

Here's another thing to muse about... I think that NavTech data has all the house numbers geocoded, whereas TeleAtlas works with an approximation "This part of the street has the odd house numbers from 1001 to 1201. You are looking for 1089 so we guess it is somewhere in the middle of that street part" . Works ok for short streets, but here in America streets are very, very long, and houses are not evenly distributed...
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guy · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 08, 2004 Posts: 13

Ya,

And I'm not liking the fact that looking up addresses requires you to know the postcode. You can type in the street without the postcode, but then you have to look at the map to see if it is in the right location since the same street name will be in many places. Hmmm, well, I still think the most up-to-date maps are important, so I may still go with Navman.

igurevich38 · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 8:09 pm Post subject:

NavTech house numbers are also appoximations and sometimes even assumptions. In the US 8 out of 10 times (my personal assesment) the house numbers in NavTech database are either way off or simply wrong. The numbers are averaged over the street span and in some cases assume that a street block all the numbers that it's supposed to have which it really doesn't. Also, sometimes the house numbers are reversed to the wrong end of the street.

I never used TeleAtlas database, but I can't imagine it could be any worse than the NavTech one in terms of house numbers.

lbendlin · Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2004 12:55 am Post subject:

Interesting how perceptions differ... Here in Texas the NavTech data (in Mapopolis) is spot on.

Each house number I was navigating to so far was exactly where Mapopolis said it is (of course assuming the map data has the street in the first place which is not always the case for NavTech).

TeleAtlas has newer maps for Texas, but the house numbers are sometimes several hundred yards to several miles off....

So... Every generalization is bad. (got the joke?)
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igurevich38 · Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2004 3:51 am Post subject:

I am in Maryland and also drive a lot around in Pennsylvania. In both, Navtech numbers are really bad. I have Destinator 3. May be this area has worse maps than Texas.

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