What's the verdict on MapShare?

Captain_Eric · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 03, 2006 Posts: 51

From reading the forums here, it looks like MapShare is fairly so-so.

But I thought I would put the question out there straight and ask those of you who have been using it for a while: what do you think?

Does it really help you? What are it's pros and cons? How much do you use it? Do you get helpful downloads from the "community?"

(Maybe you should mention which device/maps/softwae you are using).

Thanks in advance.

Capn.

uffe73 · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:17 am Post subject:

I have been using MapShare quite a bit since buying my TT720 back in December. Before the V8 SW arrived it was mostly to block/unblock roads, report new roundabouts and sometimes to report a new/deleted road. Only the first one of these has an immediate effect on the map while the rest were assumed to be forwarded to Tele Atlas for inclusion in a future map release. The demotivating thing here was when I upgraded my map for the 1st time and realized that NONE of my reports had been included in the new map data. So as a consequence I had to start all over again reporting all map errors from the back of my head. Let's hope that this improves a bit after TomTom acquiring TeleAtlas.

With the v8 SW came the possibility to add/change turn restrictions and to rename streets, which I have been using quite extensively. These changes are visible on the map immediately, which is nice. The feature of changing road speed limits is unfortunately still too immature to be really useful, due to the crappy user interface - especially for motorways. I hope TT fixes this in the next SW upgrade.

As for the map updates from the community, I haven't really noticed them, which may be because I have MapShare set up to use only changes verified by TomTom. (This is an excellent feature of MapShare that isn't understood by all members of the TT support team as I was once told on the phone that there was no way for me to know if my map changes had been verified or not.) Then you are obviously not aware of the map changes made by other people for areas where you're not driving on a regular basis, so it's difficult to judge the quality of these changes.

Ok, these were my quick thoughts on this matter. Looking forward to hear other thoughts and opinions.

Regards,
Ulf
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TomTom GO720T: App ver 8.351(9982/090518), OS:315187, GPS v1.20, Boot 5.5120
TT RDS-TMC: 4V00.013
Maps: Scandinavia v840.2562, Western_Europe v715.1703
Garmin GPSMap 60CSx (SW ver. 3.70)

runarg · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 01, 2005 Posts: 47

MapShare is a great idea and it's a great tool specially with V8. I have used it on several devices since it came out the first time. The biggest advantage so far fro me has been to enter changes where I drive and see the effect immediately. In my neighbourhood there are several streets where TomTom has got the allowed direction for driving wrong. Without MapShare I would have received wrong routes from TomTom each lime I drive to/from home.
The negative thing is that people can submit wrong updates, on purpose or by accident. Here in Norway we have a big problem with this. We are sure that some people submit blocking of main roads etc. on purpose and that makes the maps very wrong when you download these changes. The problem is that this happen even if you only choose "Changes verified by TomTom". It's obvious that TomTom's system for verifying is not good enough. I know that TomTom is working hard to make this better.
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mikealder · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:53 am Post subject:

Great idea, sadly it is poorly implemented. The Speed Limit change doesn't work when altering MPH related speeds, poor data verification and open to abuse by people submitting incorrect data (either knowingly or by mistake).
I see the use of this as a gradual way to progressively degrade your map accuracy - Mike

uffe73 · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 7:35 am Post subject:

JaguarV12e · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 7:56 am Post subject:

I think that the concept is good, and the implementation mostly OK.

I have submitted 200+ corrections for the v8.05 maps. The user interface could surely be improved, by allowing road blocking and speed limit changes to start at arbitrary points, and a new mode for speed limit changes that let you click once when driving past a speed limit change, and then later link them up with the speeds.

I have not noticed any case of a malicious wrong change (I run with all shares enabled), but have seen a couple of cases where long stretches of road have had a wrong speed limit applied, almost certainly because of the current bad user interface for selecting roads.

The system at TT for accepting changes should (maybe already does) include a rating for each user that submits updates, so that updates from users who have submitted good updates in the past have their updates accepted with less checking.

At the very least, I suppose that the submitted updates will be checked by TT/Teleatlas nex thime they are drive testing in the area.
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uffe73 · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:10 am Post subject:

MaFt · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:21 am Post subject:

Andy_P · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:05 pm Post subject:

Thank you MaFt for finding my "main A40 blocked" post... I was going to mention it so you saved me a search!

Apparently, TT made that closure a permanent "verified by TomTom" correction on the basis of one report to them from the BBC, which didn't mention it was just for one night!
TT say they have improved their checking since then....

A couple of times now, in an unguarded moment, TomTom have said to me something along the lines of "Give us a break...it's new and it's early days yet. We are still working out the complexities involved."

How you look at that is up to you... They ARE trailblazing with Mapshare... AFAIK, no-one else has attempted anything similar on a satnav yet, and if they waited until they were absolutely certain the system was watertight, they probably wouldn't ever get it launched. But on the other hand, as ever with TomTom, WE are the unofficial beta testers.

As for the details of making/using corrections (and picking up on a few things said by others), his is how I THINK it stands:

Blocking roads - This is likely to be the most misused correction. Most road closures I see are just the ends of roads being blocked by bollards or gates. TomToms blocking method has, up to now been simply to make the road one-way or "no-way". Sometimes you could select a shorter section of the road, sometimes you couldn't.

Changing road direction - just the same as blocking roads. See above

Changing road names - was actually implemented in v7 Mapshare too. But could only re-name an entire road as TomTom saw it. V8 can now select smaller sections, which isn't perfect yet but an improvement.

Changing road speed - only implemented in v8. Does work in UK but there is a "rounding" bug where change is stored in km/h and the displayed speed in MPH shows as 39 MPH instead of 40 etc. - hopeless.

"Cannot turn left/right into" - was implemented as a "report only" in v7. Takes immediate effect in v8. Discovered recently it can also be used to ALLOW left/right turns that TT thought were illegal.

Add roundabout/Add new road/City/Motorway junction - implemented in both v7 and v8 as a "report to TomTom" only.

Add/Edit POI - very confusingly implemented because these ONLY refer to TomTom's own built-in POIs, you don't edit any added POIs here (you do that in "Manage POIs").
Implemented fully since v7 but as far as I know the entire POI sharing aspect of Mapshare broke about 6-8 months ago and still isn't fixed. They get uploaded, but don't appear in any downloads.

JaguarV12e · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:09 pm Post subject:

I would not want all mapshare updates to be verified by Tomtom. If they had the resources to do that, then the maps would have been perfect in the first place.

I expect the unverified mapshare updates to have about the same level of accuracy as advice in this forum, that is about 90% is perfectly correct, about 9% is well intentioned, but misleading or inaccurate, and about 1% is wrong through wilful stupidity.

The updates that are wrong should get themselves corrected, just as errors in the original map are corrected, so the maps should statistically converge to a better state.

That reminds me of another improvement that I would like to see: Any change in road blocking due to mapshre, or a junction with restricted turning should be highlighted on the map, so that it can be treated with caution/checked by other users.
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Andy_P · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 3:46 pm Post subject:

Captain_Eric · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 03, 2006 Posts: 51

Thanks to all of you! It's very insightful and helpful.

Some follow-up:

From one of the posts, (i.e. "Cannot turn left/right into" - was implemented as a "report only" in v7. Takes immediate effect in v8.") it's clear V8 can do more than V7.

My question: if someone makes a change in V8 does it show up on the V7 immediately from the "unverified community" download?

What hardware has V8, the x30's? Was the x20's offered a software upgrade top V8?

I assume changes are only for a certain map version (and not available for all map versions), correct?

Again, thanks. Amazingly helpful.

Capn.

mikealder · Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 7:20 am Post subject:

x30 unitd all have version 8 software, in addition the x20, One XL and One Third Edition have all had updates released to enable version 8 software to work on them. - Mike

Andy_P · Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:42 am Post subject:

... and:

MapShare updates made on one map version are not downloaded for another version - Stupid!

There doesn't seem to be any fixed rules about whether MapShare updates made by one person will appear using the "reported by some" option, or about how long they will take to appear.
Me and some others did a few experiments on this in the early days, and some corrections came through quite quickly, but of course you can never tell if someone else is reporting the same thing as well.

Mapshare POI corrections don't seem to have been included in the downloads for about 6 months!

As for the "cannot turn left/right into..." correction: it is interesting that v8 SOFTWARE can now make this type of correction on a v7 MAP.
A friend who has that set-up has just made a particular correction near me, and we are now waiting to see if I get it on my v7/v7 set-up in the next few days...

uffe73 · Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 11:20 am Post subject:

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