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Comments
If you updated to a one year newer disk, you would probably not find any significant advantage. Taken as a whole, updated maps for the entire continent of North America contain many changes. But how many of them affect the limited areas in which any one of us drives as an individual?
As already mentioned, to get a 1 year newer DVD for most people probably isn't worth it. Sure, you may locate a gas station on the navi system only to find it's now a Walgreens, but 1 year isn't going to make a big difference. I'm still using my DVD that came with my 04 Accord, and for the most part it's just fine. The only time it can be aggravating is trying to find a road that turns out to be in a new subdivision.
The DVD's are always going to be somewhat outdated since things change faster then they can edit the database.
Mrbill
You wrote "superior maps with the TeleAtlas having the most update maps in North America is more important to me." Please provide some concrete data to support that contention.
http://p10.hostingprod.com/@www.gpsmagazine.com/2006/07/navteq_vs_teleatlas_whic- h_one.html
http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=53419
http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/navteq.php
http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/02/garmin-n-vi-360-reviewed/
http://www.autonav2000.com/Compare/C550-MRM6000T-TT910%20review9-20-06.pdf
My StreetPilot 330 has a 3Dimensional Mode (which gives a Bird's Eye View). Is this what you are talking about? I realize mine is a relatively base model Garmin, but it still has this feature...
The new North American TeleAtlas maps include:
410,000 miles of new roads;
6 million new household/business addresses;
500,000 new POIs;
improved road detailing;
updated shopping centers, golf courses, etc.
please refer to article (from thread) and the thread posted below:
link title
Plus Quote from thread:
"I have checked about ten different errors that are on my 910 and just about all of them have been fixed when I check on http://mapinsight.teleatlas.com . Mapinsight also has some new streets that opened up about a year ago that aren't on the 910 maps. I don't know if my error reports had anything to do with getting them fixed but I hope that if any of you find map errors that you take the time and report it to teleatlas at http://mapinsight.teleatlas.com The one error that I know didn't get fixed is an bridge off ramp that is open only to bikes and pedestrians but is closed to cars which is shown as a regular off ramp. They did fix the closed off ramp which is on the other side of the bridge though. I checked this against Navteq's latest database and they still have it wrong."
.....You be the judge :shades:
article:
http://crunchgear.com/2006/12/21/to...es-new-mapmaps/
thread: http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=74715&SearchTerms=,tomtom,- maps
I'm still waiting for you to answer my request: "You wrote "superior maps with the TeleAtlas having the most update maps in North America is more important to me." Please provide some concrete data to support that contention."
You've posted certain TeleAtlas update information, but how have you determined that their maps are more up to date than Navteq's? Please provide a valid link.
"Our mobile mapping vans travel at normal traffic speeds, which is much faster than traditional data collection cars, collecting images of street signs and buildings, lane information and much more along the way, all without blinking. So the vans capture updates faster and more accurately, and help us outpace the industry in delivering the freshest maps. We have invested million of dollars over the last decade to perfect this technology, including a major acquisition last year to advance our process and production capabilities. We have developed advanced software to mine the data and images – we package the data and send it to our production facilities in Poland and India.
The result of all this is that our productivity is much greater. We can capture data five times faster than historical methods of capturing data – and we can deliver more content to our partners at lower costs."
-TeleAtlas
http://www.applelinks.com/index.php/more/tomtom_releases_most_accurate_and_detai- led_maps_for_the_us_and_canada/
Also the links you sent me were all a blogs and message. You didn't provide any published articles. At least post current links that would accout for the very recent TeleAtlas map updates.....the one you sent from pocketgpsworld.com is from Nov 3rd 2004. Sorry technology moves alot faster than that these days.
Truthfully time will tell who is right but as of this moment I would put my money on telaatlas.
I've no idea why I've been defending one giant company over another giant company, in neither of which I have any vested interest, but there's some intersesting reading here:
http://www.navteq.com/about/index.html
You may also be interested in this article from the Business section of last July's New York Times. I'm pasting it below because you may not be able to read it here without a subscription:
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=FB091FF938540C7A8CDDAE08- - - - 94DE404482
July 9, 2006
TECHNOLOGY; Matching Digital Maps to America's Ever-Changing Roads
By JEREMY W. PETERS
SATELLITE navigation systems have largely delivered all they promised when the technology first took to the highway: that drivers would always know where they were.
The trouble is, there are times when simply knowing your position on the planet is not enough. A G.P.S. unit is of little help in guiding you to a chosen destination when the route it calculates is outdated, if it instructs you to take an exit that has been closed or if it tells you to turn onto a road that has been converted into a pedestrian mall.
Technically speaking, you are not lost, but it's still a frustrating case of ''can't get there from here.''
To cope with this situation, digital mapping companies are rushing to keep up with road construction projects and new subdivisions popping up in what were cornfields only yesterday. Their goal is to assure that the digital maps used by navigation systems, stored on a DVD, hard disc or memory card, do not lag too far behind the reality.
The task is huge. On any given day at Navteq, the nation's largest digital map company, as many as 550 field analysts in 131 offices around the world may be on the road charting street grids. One recent bright and breezy afternoon in the far reaches of Queens, two of the company's analysts were navigating their white Ford Escape around quiet streets in the Rockaway Peninsula.
''I think you can delete what's in front of us because that doesn't exist anymore,'' Chris Arcari, a Navteq geographic analyst told his colleague, Shovie Singh, who was serving as the map plotter on this excursion.
Mr. Arcari was referring to the scene ahead, where a street that once ran through a new condominium development had been torn up and barricaded with ''road closed'' signs. The last time he and Mr. Singh were mapping the neighborhood -- just a couple of months ago -- the road went all the way through.
That's how quickly maps can become obsolete.
Using a graphics tablet -- a computer input device used to mark up the map by drawing with a pen instead of clicking a mouse -- Mr. Singh made a series of yellow X's over the closed road, which was displayed on a computer monitor on the dashboard.
The analysts record every little change they find. A stretch of West 66th Street on the Upper West Side of Manahattan, which has been renamed Peter Jennings Way to honor the late television anchorman, is now listed under both names on their maps. A series of crosstown streets in Midtown that were recently designated as ''through'' streets -- no left or right turns off the streets are allowed during peak traffic hours -- are now all marked as such so navigation systems will not instruct drivers to make turns.
The mapping system aboard the Ford Escape is relatively simple. It consists of a G.P.S. receiver with a roof-mounted antenna; an electronic input tablet; and a laptop computer that transfers raw geographic data accumulated on the drive to a monitor between the driver and the plotter, as Navteq calls the analyst in the passenger-side seat. There is also a video camera used to make a visual record of the trips.
The electronics record the vehicle's exact path, as determined by the G.P.S. unit. The data that the analysts see is much less refined than the maps that end up in a vehicle's navigation system. To the untrained eye, it is an undecipherable jumble of cartography symbols and color-coded lines.
Red lines represent major arteries, light blue lines are closed roads, blobs of blue mark non-navigable areas like marshes or fields, and so on. The equipment can code 150 attributes for any given road, noting details from how many lanes there are to whether the stretch of pavement is part of an underpass.
When there are holes in the map data -- missing addresses, a road that was not indicated or a landmark with no name -- the geographic analysts have to do a little detective work.
For instance, a short road on the Rockaway Peninsula -- it dead-ends into a canal -- has been unnamed on Navteq maps for some time now. Mr. Arcari pulled the Escape to the side of the road, got out and inspected a mailbox to see if the street name was there. No luck. In such a case, he will consult New York City records and use whatever name appears there for the street.
Map technicians spend a lot of time trying to match city and county records across the country with the actual roads. They verify and reverify, making trips into the field several times a week so their data will be reliable for car companies, makers of accessory and hand-held G.P.S. units and Internet map providers like Google and Yahoo.
Navteq updates its database continuously, releasing new versions several times a year so its customers are not selling maps that are long out of date. But as long as G.P.S. units depend on digital maps stored onboard -- the satellite's signal provides information only to determine a position, not the street grid itself -- they are always going to have some holes because road networks are constantly evolving.
And with navigation systems becoming more and more sophisticated, offering features like the locations of A.T.M.'s or Italian restaurants nearby, it is a never-ending undertaking to keep data current.
''You see changes all the time,'' Mr. Arcari said. ''There are new turn restrictions, street directionality, speed limits.''
Navteq, based in Chicago, and Tele Atlas, a competitor with headquarters in Belgium, gather all this information and create the databases for companies that sell navigation systems and services. While Tele Atlas relies more on existing data sources and less on fieldwork to update its records, the companies' methods of making a digital map have similarities. The raw information -- geographic coordinates of latitude and longitude -- is stored with other essential details as a data file called a vector map.
Once field analysts are done charting streets and points of interest and the information has been added to the map file, the data can be sold to companies like Garmin, Magellan and auto industry suppliers, which then convert the map data into a form that can be di
Well I admire your willness to engage in a healthy consumer arguement. I'm seroius! I can't remember a time I posted so many links back and forth with someone. I'm also impressed with your knowledge of different map providers and gps units. Now I have to point out a couple things concerning your last arguement. I don't have a NY times account so I couldn't view that article. The other article you posted was from July 9th and the new Tele Atlas map updates were completed end of December 2006. Although it was interesting article, it is not applicable because Tele Atlas as since change. Also in regards to the TTS (text-to-speech)comment you made some time ealier. It turns out that it is also a feature with the TomTom 910
http://www.tomtom.com/products/product.php?ID=268&Category=0&Lid=4
"The TomTom GO 910 features text-to-speech, which means that it can announce street and place names and even read out SMS messages. Try it out and see how good the quality is. Just type something in and let the text-to-speech functionality read it back to you."
~cheers
Interesting links from today's news:
http://www.theregister.com/2007/01/29/tomtom_malware/print.html
http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1276.html
http://www.tomtom.com/news/category.php?ID=2&NID=349&Language=1
Does the Honda Navigation system do text to speech for names of roads, etc?
Thanks,
Allan
My 2004 Accord does limited TTS. I can't speak for more current models.
My Garmin nüvi 350 pocketable unit is fully TTS capable.
I've checked that I have the latest DVD (4.55) so I'm just at a loss as to why the system can't find well-established businesses and locations. Is this a known problem? Has anyone else had this experience? Is there a solution?! It's driving me crazy and I've only had the car a week!
Just yesterday, we checked for a nearby McDonalds (Suburban Phila) and found a few in Kansas. After struggling to search for nearest restaurant...I remembered a McDOnalds that was built about 3-4 years ago only a mile away.
The handheld systems are much easier to use & have the latest data (plus can download latest info online).
Also, some things are listed in different ways. You may be looking for "XYZ High School" but the listing will be under "XYZ School".
It shouldn't take two or more sequences to find the nearest location.
In your original message you wrote:
The Honda NAV database is extremely limited. We have the system in our '06 Odyssey and rarely use it. It is not very user friendly and as you mentioned, is missing many stores & restaurants.
Just yesterday, we checked for a nearby McDonalds (Suburban Phila) and found a few in Kansas. After struggling to search for nearest restaurant...I remembered a McDOnalds that was built about 3-4 years ago only a mile away.
My only experience is with my 2004 Accord's Navigation System. But I presume that it works somewhat like your Odyssey's. Entering a Destination on page 26 of my Navigation System manual states:
"After selecting a category (Restaurant?), the system will give you the options of Place Name by Keyword, Sort by Distance to Travel, a City Vicinity, or Place Name. Refer to the following pages of explanations of these options."
It goes on to explain the steps, that are quite simple to follow.
Could it be that you hadn't read your manual before writing your earlier comments?
I'll have to go look at the Honda site to see what I can learn.
I also found that my 2004 Navigation System didn't know about the Daylight Savings Time law that was signed in 2005. However, I found that it was necessary to tell the system to NOT auto adjust for DST. I then set it ahead by one hour. Now I'm seeing a correct display of time. Since I'm turning my leased vehicle in this summer, I won't have to concern myself about the adjustment next fall.
I made the following adjustments earlier today:
Setup Screen - 4
Auto Daylight Savings Time - Off
Time Adjust - Hour
Press + once
Return
However, our most consistent frustration with it is the difficulty of using the touchscreen keyboard: It rarely takes an input of a city or street name or number correctly the first time. Frequently we have to push a particular 'key' on the screen keyboard several times to get it to 'take' or register, and many of those times the adjacent key will respond instead of the one we touched, so we have to 'cancel' and try again. VERY frustrating.
I just wonder if others have had this problem, and, if so, whether they were able to get the dealer to switch out the unit for a new one that solved the problem. And if others do NOT have this problem, then perhaps we can assume we have a defective unit. We're still under warranty, though not by much.
Thanks...
charles
You might have it checked out because I am certainly not having major issues with it.
If you hold the following keys for 4(?) seconds, you can get into one of the diagnostic areas of the system.
Map/Guide Menu Cancel
Once in the diagnostic area, select Monitor Check. Next select Touch Panel Check. It pops up a test screen that allows you to do a finer test of the screen. You might want to use something soft but pointier then your finger, (Q-tip maybe) so you can see with more accuracy where your pushing. I did find a few points along the bottom that don't seem to be active.
There is another screen if you go back a screen called Monitor Adjustment. Playing with the joystick moves the screen back-forth or up-down.
There may be other setup screens and/or diagnostic screens besides these. Somewhere I do have written down another series of keys to push to get into a diagnostic area, but not sure where I put it (male mentalpause kicking in)
All PCs and PDAs that I've worked with which have touch screens also have an alignment screen and I would think the navi screen has one also. The dealer may be able to make an adjustment.
Mrbill
Thank you for your help
here's an example from my experience today
1. the directions said to take 65 south for 18 miles
actually, 65 ends in 2 miles and the driver must either take 80 east or 80 west
2. the directions said to exit in one mile in a place where there was no exit
3. the directions had me go west, make a u-turn and go east when i could easily have just continued east
4. the street that i was going to..although it's been on the map for decades and shows up on my Garmin, was marked as "non digitized".
5. in fact, most streets seem to be "non digitized" even though they all show up on my Garmin
i wish i had tried this out before getting it. although the interface has all sorts of bells and whistles, it's a terrible system for actual navigation
i often think that it's using a map that's a hundred years old when these streets really didn't exist
Your message is absolutely contrary to my experience over more than three years with my 2004 Accord's incredible navigation system.
If I were you, I would immediately bring my concerns to the attention of your dealership. You may have a defective DVD in the trunk, or possibly a mechanical problem.
The only times that I've seen a "non-digitized" message were when I was in a driveway, parking lot or a newly constructed neighborhood. I'm still using the original DVD made in 2003.
I think the navi manual lists the cities that are verified. It may also be on Honda's Owner's Link website.
>I own an Accord and an Odyssey with Navigation
>(the Odyssey has DVD as well). Is there a
>hack or aftermarket item out there that
>will allow you to watch DVDs on the Nav
>screen?
Yes. Google for these terms: G-Net RGB HondaAcura
Gray
Great thread. I myself am about to grab either an '07 Civic w/ Nav or an '07 Accord w/ Nav over the next couple days (check out my posts in the prices paid & buying experiences threads for these two cars).
I'm going to see if I can negotiate to a standstill point and then say, "alright, I'll take this car if you give me the latest DVD for an '04 Accord." Let's hope that works.
Thanks for posting about using the screen in the accord to watch DVDs. I would love to do that, but it seems the sound is relayed through FM modulation? I think I'll pass then.
I know how to turn the auto update on and off... I was just hoping that there was a way to update the auto update... if that makes any sense. Now that daylight savings will be earlier each year, the auto update won't be of much help in the spring. I haven't heard of a way to make that change in the system.
That means that the auto update will work in the fall but not in the spring.
It's not going to work in the fall either. We're going back to Standard Time 3 weeks later - mid November instead of last weekend in October.
Heard the rumor that 08 Accord is not a touch screen nav?
I own an 04 Accord and looking to purchase the new Accord.
I hope the navigation is as easy and simple as my current car.
Does anyone know about this?
I assume you can use voice tags to make a phone call by saying something like "Call Britney."
Can you dial a number that is not in your contacts via voice commands by just saying the digits? "Call 555-3567"