Monday, May 28, 2007

Driving around Europe for a living ... keeping your SatNav up-to-date

Months ago I posted about the problems I found trying to get a SatNav that worked adequately across the island of Ireland. Rather than bear the expense of a Garman unit, I opted for the TomTom One Europe – which uses Navteq maps, rather than the different map supplier (Tele Atlas) than similarly-named models like the Tom Tom One GB.

Why am I reprising this story? Well, other than the fact that the original “TomTom One vs Navman F20 post gets more hits than any other post on this blog ...

A story caught my eye in the free Metro paper on the Tube, and it was reprised on the BBC News site too.

Stijn Ulenaers and his girlfriend Gudrun Vanlaar drive around Europe in an Orange Tele Atlas motorhome, kitted out with five cameras, a hard disc recorder, and a map that looks a bit like a snail trail showing which roads they’ve driven along and which ones they still need to traverse.

According to the Metro, without Stijn and Gurrun, “the Tom Tom would be a dum-dum, the Go would stop and Navmans wouldn't navigate.”

I’ve embedded the short video clip. (There's also a more technical explanation on video from the good folks over at Network World.)

Maybe, having been part of Tele Atlas’ major press offensive, the pair will manage to pop across to Ireland soon and spend a week or two adding a lot of detail to the Tele Atlas maps. (And Navteq shouldn’t shirk from coming back to catch up on their mistakes – like the non-existent right turn across the Albertbridge Road opposite the old Maysfield Leisure Centre (now Titanic Film Studios).

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