This might mean that you use a satellite image or an aerial photograph to verify a new road layout, but much of what TomTom does to develop maps relies on human beings driving cars, using mobile phones and TomTom devices. Some are large databases, like government bodies, others are tiny organisations, but all are authoritative. Some of that information can be applied from an office, with TomTom using more than 50,000 data sources to add to its maps. It's a long way from simply taking an existing map and stuffing it into a navigation device. You also have things like points of interest, 3D buildings, lanes, junctions and signage, all of which have to be layered on the top. Then you have things like one-way systems, speed limits, height and weight restrictions, street names and building numbers, all of which TomTom maps provide. Here you can see the flow of traffic doesn't match the roads, and the roundabout isn't marked. This was certainly the case for the Martinique maps, as seen below. Starting with the base map, you build up layers of information, adding data to the map, improving the accuracy of the information it contains and bringing in all the detail that drivers need.įor starters, some maps have the roads in the wrong location geographically, something that needs to be corrected, so your vehicle isn't always shown as driving on the verge, or along the beach. In Europe and North America, the maps are "mature", meaning they are detailed and good quality, but for more remote locations, like those in the Map Paradise project, TomTom have to head out and develop the maps. From this base map TomTom has a foundation on which the final product maps can be built.īut the base map is only the first step and, for example in Martinique, the base map is often incomplete. TomTom bought Tele Atlas in 2008 and in doing so, obtained its "mother database", a digital map of the world. It's a task that lies at the very core of what TomTom is about: "We are about getting people from A to B in a car, in the best possible manner," says Pauwels. We're going to see what TomTom puts into it's maps, how the process unfolds, how that data is collected and collated and how each part of the puzzle fits together. We're here to assist TomTom with the arduous task of mapping Martinique, to incorporate the country's roads into TomTom's navigation maps. Martinique is known for its banana exports as well as its rum it's a country packed with plantations and an abundance of fruit trees, providing rich pickings parched journalists marauding the island.īut we're not here to relax. He's relaxed, confident, and not opposed to dropping in the odd joke as he addresses us. Pauwels's charisma is infectious, a man obviously impassioned by TomTom's achievements and future goals. "We are building our business based on our content," says the TomTom co-founder and chief technical officer.Ī self-confessed geek and a co-founder of TomTom, Pauwels stands before hand-picked media in an air conditioned suite at the Cap Est Resort in Martinique, a small island in the Lesser Antilles. The "diamond in the crown is the content", says Peter-Frans Pauwels. But TomTom isn't about hardware, no matter how successful and widespread the company's devices are. I'm still happy with the TomTom ONE as a standalone device, but their support for OSX users is inexcusable.(Pocket-lint) - When someone says TomTom to you, you probably think about that little black box you stick to your windscreen. (To date, I've never gotten any mapshare correction updates!) It directs me to the update page, which after a minute says that everything is up to date. Also on the main home page, it tells me that my MapShare updates are out of date (which they are), however it won't let me update the MapShare corrections. Some of the new Home program works, but more often than not, the updater fails. (If they can't figure out how to make the computer-gps control work out, they should make it possible to password protect the gps from within.) Still no computer control of my TomTom ONE LE, just an error that says "this feature is not supported by your device or operating system." This means that it is not possible for me to password protect the gps. This Version, 2.2.0.16, works somewhat, however some things don't work at all. Well, it's better than the old version, which was well outdated even last year.
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