TomTom compared with other options

Peter Kessler

I’ve been looking at a few different street navigation options recently, and (this may not be the right forum to air them but) I thought I’d share my conclusions.

First of all, in my opinion there are three key necessities for a navigation program. They are these:

1. It must have Navteq maps, not TeleAtlas. Navteq simply do not have as many errors as TeleAtlas which, for example, mis-name a large number of roads in London, making them unfindable.
2. It must have a quickest / shortest option. Otherwise it will constantly force you back to major roads, which often involves ridiculous detours.
3. It must – if at all possible – have full-length postcode lookup. This is vital for finding businesses that may not have house numbers, destinations on unnamed roads and many other everyday navigation needs. Once used, never bettered.

Of course there are lots of other desirable features (customisable POIs, live traffic option etc etc), but without the above three, I don’t think you have a truly workable navigation assistant.

So which products have all three of my (very personal) key requirements?

TomTom 3? you get (or at least got and may still have) the full postcode option with ukpostcodes add-on; you get shortest / quickest. But the maps are TeleAtlas, so the level of inaccuracy is unacceptable.

CoPilot 5? Navteq maps good; quickest / shortest is OK-ish; but only 5-digit postcodes are possible.

Destinator 3? Again, it’s got the Navteq maps. Quick / short option is also there. But once again, you can only use the 5-digit postcodes.

AA Navigator? Full postcode look-up is available; Navteq maps are used. But the AA didn’t give the quickest / shortest option. If only!

TomTom 2.24: Full postcode look-up via ukpostcodes add-on; quickest / shortest option available (and even customisable); Navteq maps (TomTom switched to TeleAtlas with version 3).

So out of all the above, the old version of TomTom seems still to hold the edge – as long as you agree with my priorities. The only problem with TomTom 2.24 is that the maps are gradually getting out of date. But at the moment, I would say it’s still prefereable to anything else on the market. Anyone agree?

lbendlin · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 4:02 am Post subject:

TomTom 2.24 uses TeleAtlas maps.
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Lutz

Report Map Errors here:
TomTom/TeleAtlas NAVTEQ

Peter Kessler · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 10:37 am Post subject:

My mistake.

In that case, why have errors been introduced from 2 to 3, I wonder.

lbendlin · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 2:42 pm Post subject:

Because each time you compile maps you have about 160 chances to select the wrong parameters and filters. Map compilation is pretty close to black magic.
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Lutz

Report Map Errors here:
TomTom/TeleAtlas NAVTEQ

Peter Kessler · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 3:10 pm Post subject:

So I guess the question is: which are better, the more up-to-date maps with TomTom 3 or the older but quite possibly more accurate maps of TomTom 2. I'd have to conclude that 2 is still better, having driven with both.

Pepperami · Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 2:46 am Post subject:

and which is better in people's opinions

TT or Destinator?

Oldboy · Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 8:12 am Post subject:

With version 5, hopefully TT
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Richard

TT 910 V7.903: Europe Map v1045
TT Via 135 App 12.075: Europe Map v1120

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