Print

The problem with in-car mapping systems is no longer the coverage of the data. If a mapping van hasn't driven down your steet, it will soon, no matter where you live. Today, the big issue is currency.

It is an irritating fact that as the resolution of spatial data becomes smaller, our tolerance of errors in the dataset also diminishes. For those who provide in-car mapping systems or the digital map databases that are used in navigation applications, this is a serious issue. But it has a solution.

You need to know this in order to understand one of the most remarkable events in the industry in the last few years – the sale of Tele Atlas to the personal navigation device manufacturer, TomTom, for $4.5 billion.

The amalgamation of the two companies offers a rapid solution to the problem. Users can now use special technology developed by TomTom to update Tele Atlas maps.

I met Arnout Desmet, who heads Tele Atlas' Asia Pacific operations, when I was in Kuala Lumpur in June. He was excited about the MapShare technology developed by TomTom. It comprises a passive probing system and an active user-generated map defect reporting and correction system.

‘It really is remarkable technology,’ he said.

As Desmet explains it, passive probing is the business of investigating the position of personal navigation devices (PND) as they traverse the road network. The active MapShare component is about discovering errors and sharing them with other users.

‘We can use the probe information to spot errors in the database, such as missing or misaligned roads. We can also use it to integrate historical speed patterns on various road segments,’ he said.

‘This historical speed information can be used to improve the accuracy of estimated travel times and route selection of navigation systems as it helps to predict when and where traffic congestion or obstruction is likely to occur, any time of the day,’ he said.

‘Using the active part of the program, users can change street names, edit or add a point of interest, modify the direction of traffic flow to indicate one way streets, and so on.

‘The technology allows users to upgrade the data on their own PND. Any changes they make are permanently reflected on their own PNDs. This is a technically difficult feat that has been accomplished by TomTom's engineers.

‘But where it gets really powerful is when you link it to the internet. Users can elect to share this data with other users. The incentive to do this is that they receive data that other users have updated. The PND is synchronised with the desktop computer at home and the updated information is transferred between the PND and the TomTom server,’ said Desmet.

Once transferred, the changes are verified by Tele Atlas. They then form part of the next official release of the database.

Desmet says that the costs involved in field data collection mean that the company tries to maximise the use of other methods to validate the required changes.

'We have a number of strategies for independently verifying a change without leaving the office,’ he says. ‘Multiple reports of the same problem from different users, the behaviour of vehicles as revealed by the probe data, or inspection of imagery captured by our mobile mapping vans are all possible ways, and they allow us to verify most changes.’

Desmet says this system is already live in Europe and North America. The company received 1.1 million map improvement reports in the first four months of 2008.

'Our intention is to deal with the bulk of these changes and incorporate them in the next version of the database.’

The big question about such a system, of course, is whether users can be trusted to update the database; or rather – since a percentage will be malicious – whether users get a more accurate database from this, than from the company finding its own mistakes and fixing them. Tele Atlas intends to build in the necessary control mechanisms and reference checks to ensure proper validation of the change reports.

Time will tell, but the massive response from users must tell us something about what the market wants.

ASM Newsletter is distributed by e-mail every two weeks. It reports on events in the spatial industry in Asia and events outside the region which will impact on Asia.