You can't make this stuff up!

[Len J]

So my son wanted a Tom-Tom GPS navigation unit for his truck. I go out and find one on sale, bring it home, and turn it on to check on the updates.

I start moving around and entering addresses.....well, like 25% of all the streets in my area are not in the database.....***?

So I call customer service:

Me: Your database doesn't include many streets in my area.
CS Rep: Yes they do, we have the lastest database available.
Me: No really, your database is missing many streets in my area.
CS Rep: Can you give me an example?
Me: Outram St
CS Rep: You are right, but that's an exception.
Me: Old Pastuer Road
CS Rep: Well yea, that's not in their either.............Do you know where those 2 roads are?
Me: Yes I do.
CS Rep: Then why is it a problem that they are not in the database?

I just laughed.....she was serious.

Len

[Louis]

Seriously, how new / old is the development ?

[dave thompson]

I bought a Garmin Nuvi 200 for our bike van. I was really surprised how many small country roads it shows in our very rural 'outback' area. Some of these are just a single lane dirt road.

[barry1021]

Neverlost at Hertz still did not have my street in Scottsdale and its at least eight years old.....but now I know where it is, too!

b21

[1centaur]

Map software is really important, which is why there was recently a scramble by Nokia and Tom-Tom to buy the major providers. It's a tough business. When looking for a GPS, figuring out which map software fits your needs is job one. Last I looked, Garmin had a way on their website to look at what their add-in maps showed. I used it to see which tiny roads in rural New Hampshire showed, since I was thinking bike, not superhighway. Takes a lot of man hours to update roads.

[Squint]

I believe both Garmins and Google Maps use Navteq map data so you can use Google Maps to see if your roads would show up in a Garmin.

A map update for Garmins came out relatively recently so it's possible that Google Maps is more up-to-date than a lot of the Garmin units out there.

[Len J]

Seriously, how new / old is the development ?

10 years.

Len

[dookie]

navteq maps are the ones to have...

my nuvi had all the single-lane gravel fire roads in pisgah nat'l forest in it, as well as the sand tracks comprising the neighborhood of corova, nc (drive N to the end of NC-12 in corolla, nc, get on the beach, drive 10mi more in the sand...4wd only).

i'm impressed.

it does seem to be missing recent construction. an outer belt around raleigh built in the last year or so is only partially present. but as the OP said, i know
where it is, so whatever...i'm sure it'll be in a future update.

$0.02

[Len J]

doesn't anyone else find her answer funny!?

Len

[cadence231]

doesn't anyone else find her answer funny!?

Len

Yes Len. Funny and sad.

My sis hired movers once to move her down here from VT. When the movers were unloading her damaged stuff off the moving van, she noticed her weedeater was broke. When she called it to the moving guy's attention he went to another section of the truck and retrieved another customer's weedeater and said "Here ya go."

[1centaur]

doesn't anyone else find her answer funny!?

Len
I took it for granted that it was funny. I have already re-told that story twice to co-workers and both laughed heartily.

[sspielman]

doesn't anyone else find her answer funny!?

Len

It is hilarious, actually....in the most ironic way....Like Verizon setting the standard for the WORST telephone system for customer service on the planet....

[sspielman]

just for laughs, I called up your neighborhood on our GIS program...and those streets are clearly mapped and labelled.....So, if Tomtom can't find it, call me on my cell phone and I will look it up........

[palincss]

Do those units have much of a problem with "imaginary" streets, that are on the map but not actually on the ground?

TeleAtlas, which is used by some of the cycling-oriented online mapping sites, is often more accurate on street names than NavTeq, especially of very minor streets, but seems to list many roads that exist only in some planner's imagination. Unless I'm very familiar with the roads in an area I'm creating cycling routes for, I've taken to checking both the satellite imagery and one or two alternate sites such as google maps or local.live.com to confirm that the roads are really there.

[KeithS]

Customer service is sadly the name of a department not a job function. Many years ago I had just bought a new cell phone and I was in a really big local mall - Hugedale. The phone kept dropping calls. I called customer service and explained my problem.

CSR asks - "what is the building made from, is it like concrete and steel?" (Helps if you can up talk when reading CSR response- and steel is pronounced stee-uhl.)
I replied - probably.
"We have a lot of problems with concrete and steel" (more uptalking)
So it will work at home then? I just wanted to hear her say concrete and steel again.
"Is it made from like concrete and steel?"
No traditional wood framing.
"It should work fine then."
Hey thanks...

[Ti Designs]

doesn't anyone else find her answer funny!?


I have a death certificate on file, I've explained to the IRS, the FBI, the Social Security office and my bank that I'm still alive - the humor is gone. Well, mostly gone. When I tried to renew my drivers license I wound up getting a full background check and they asked some tough questions like why I called a house in New Jersey on the second Sunday in May. Who doesn't call their mother on mother's day???

[Len J]

just for laughs, I called up your neighborhood on our GIS program...and those streets are clearly mapped and labelled.....So, if Tomtom can't find it, call me on my cell phone and I will look it up........

LOL

I'll have my son call you when he can't find his way somewhere!

Len

[BumbleBeeDave]

Do those units have much of a problem with "imaginary" streets, that are on the map but not actually on the ground?

TeleAtlas, which is used by some of the cycling-oriented online mapping sites, is often more accurate on street names than NavTeq, especially of very minor streets, but seems to list many roads that exist only in some planner's imagination. Unless I'm very familiar with the roads in an area I'm creating cycling routes for, I've taken to checking both the satellite imagery and one or two alternate sites such as google maps or local.live.com to confirm that the roads are really there.

. . . this is actually done on purpose, believe it or not. We have a local (really regional) map company here in Albany that inserts fictional villages or roads on their maps occasionally so as to be able to monitor their copyright--whether anyone is copying their maps.

I found out the hard way when I first moved to this area until another guy on staff who knew someone at the map company explained it to me. Of course, this was 15 years ago before GoogleMaps, etc, so I don't know if they still do it.

I've found Bikely.com, which I believe uses GoogleMaps, to be deadly accurate. Unfortunately, though, Google's maps don't indicate whether a road is paved or dirt or totally unmaintained. I've learned it's a very good idea to actually go out and drive a route I've designed for the use of others BEFORE we actually do the ride. There was a local fall century here where one of the "roads" for about a mile was actually a dirt and sand track. You could get a jeep through there, but no way a road bike!

BBD

[1centaur]

My biggest tip for BBD's problem with dirt roads...Google Earth. Several times already I have used Google Earth to help me avoid a dirt road that looked like part of a good loop on a paper map. I love Google Earth.