What's the point of Map Share??

[Iaindk]

In common with a number of people today I've downloaded and updated to the latest map.

I find a number of the map share corrections I made have now disappeared. Strangely some are still there, but not all by a long way.

So, what is the point in adding map share corrections? I'm certainly not going to waste my time adding them all again, I guess a number of others will also feel this way, which makes the service kind of pointless....

[technik]

I think the point of Mapshare is that we as customers do all the map updates without the need for TomTom changing the real maps, and then they just rename the old maps with a new number and call it a new map.

[DennisN]

Mapshare is a great idea despite TomTom's best efforts. As a marketing blurb it's invaluable - "Millions of TT users submitting corrections for you to download" - sadly, those millions are spread across the world in all corners where TomTom has sold devices. So the corrections are available to you if only you have the map. But I don't have a USA map, or an Australian one, or Hong Kong or wherever. So when you chop down to just your own country, perhaps the "Millions" don't seem like quite so many. Add to that, the fact that "correction" downloads don't apply to different maps on different devices. Your correction to a UK map does not pass to my Western and Central Europe and vice versa. Suddenly, the "Millions" have shrunk again. Not long ago, TomTom announced they had received their x millionth correction. Great fanfare. Terrific boost for marketing.

All the above is merely one aspect of it. Just recently, somebody posted a very good comment that a lot of people are not very good with their devices. Nothing deliberate, indeed with every good intent, they submit wildly inaccurate "corrections", so the quality of their mapshare submissions is suspect - hence the 21mph dual carriageway near me.

Another aspect is we don't know the verification system operated (or not, some might suggest!) by TomTom. As a verifier (we're all unpaid volunteers) of pocketgpsworld's camera database, I can understand that some submissions will sadly take a long time to verify - it just doesn't make sense to go to the ends of somewhere for one check, particularly if (and we have to believe) TomTom are actually paying somebody to do it. But my 21mph dual carriageway was on the A4 between Bath and Bristol - except for motorways, the busiest road in the County with rush hour average speeds about 8mph. That road has GOT to be on their verification track.

And you've discovered that YOUR OWN submissions on the previous map have not come forward to YOU on your new map.

All in all, the main point of Mapshare is proving to be for publicity purposes - we have seen several posts from "Newbies" who are planning to buy TomTom devices because they want the mapshare facility. "Your map is always up to date". How sad.

Due to bad experiences with them, I do not download any mapshare corrections. I can't choose the good ones (although you'd expect the TomTom verified ones to be good, but they're not reliably so), so I don't take any.
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[AndyVaughan]

[Trevor1234]

Hi there
Same here. I have never touched the map sharing. I agree that the idea sounds good, but in practice? No. A shame really.
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Tomtom Go 720.
Navcore 9.510
Central and Western Europe v855.2884
GPS World Traffic cameras
Home 2.7
iPhone 3G

[Jellyroll]

Talking of "some idiot", I wonder who it was that marked the southbound A1 in north Cambridgeshire between the A16 and the A47 as "closed", and how it got shared to my TomTom One when I specified that I only wanted "trusted" corrections.

To find out if you are affected, try setting a route from Tinwell to Stibbington. 7.7 miles via the A1, but with an extra 4 mile (14 minutes) detour with Map Share enabled.

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