Before the end of this year, Tele Atlas will expand their existing Map Insight application to a worldwide, online map-error registering system. This internet application will become available for all navigational system users and other systems which use the data from the Belgian company. Map Insight is currently already in use in the United States.Tele Atlas supplies map data for manufacturers of navigational systems like TomTom, Navman and Mio. This data is being kept as much up-to-date as possible through information which Tele Atlas receives from civil services, but also by charting the roads themselves. The road grid and the millions of Points of Interest happen so fast that it is very difficult for map suppliers to keep the data accurate though. By asking users for their feedback, Tele Atlas hopes to improve the quality of their maps.
Advantage
"Our goal is to produce maps with the highest quality", says George Fink, COO at Tele Atlas. "The current technology level enables us to use each user of our maps as a source for determining changes in the road grid and overall improvement of our map data. In the end, the users will also benefit from these improved maps. As will navigational system manufacturers".Map Insight will become available through the Tele Atlas web site. Navigational system manufacturer Mio is also planning on offering the application through their site. "This tool offers our end-users the possibility to collaborate at improving the Tele Atlas database", says Paul Notteboom, CEO of Mio. "It offers us more possibilities to stay in touch with our customers. It is a big step forward in the development of the navigational industry."
TomTom was involved in the early stages of the development of Map Insight. At this moment, the Amsterdam based company is not actively planning to participate in this project.
Frequent
Apart from Tele Atlas' noble goal of letting end-users participate at providing better map data, the success of the whole project depends on the frequent providing of this data to the market *and* the use of this data by the manufacturers of navigational systems in their maps. Currently, nothing is known yet about how this up-to-date data will become available sooner and more frequent to PND users.Map Insight is based on the most recent map data Tele Atlas has available. The user can report map errors or inaccuracies by means of entering the address or the coordinates of the place where the real-life situation is different from the map data.
Supervision
Alterations which are entered in Map Insight are naturally not entered in Tele Atlas' map data without first thoroughly checking if the provided alteration is correct or not. For this, several levels of supervision are provided.To get of taste of what Map Insight will be like, you can check the Tele Atlas web site.
