Finally here - user generated satnav maps

[Fat Tone]

I've been saying this should be done for years...you'd think that after your satnav finds you've driven through the same field and across the same river five times a week in opposite directions that it would finally cotton on to the fact that someone has built a road. Now it will

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/119364/comment-end-of-the-road-for-professional-mapping.html

T.

[VJ]

It is something that was not really possible without some adequate buffer
mechanism to store the changes locally, and a system with write permission
in some mapsource related storage to share the changes (which made it
virtually impossible for CD/DVD based satnavs).

It is a very interesting development though (even though I'm now working
at a company that helps to facilitate the data-acquisition and processing
for making mapdata. If there is some checking (and that article you linked
seems to hint that changes need to be submitted by a number of users), it
could well yield very up to data maps. Especially when combined with the
subscription business model. In time, users could probabely add points of
interest as well (restaurants, ...).

I have been wondering why there are no free or open source navigation
softwares (this exists for flight navigation!); it could have even been
based on commercial available maps. Perhaps this will also make an
appearance now...?

Mind you, the goal for current mapcreators is to provide a more 3D model
of the world, so that you can even see buildings on your navigation system
(Sony has this up and running for Tokyo). Acquiring image data and
reconstructing 3D images is still too complex for the end-user (although
MicroSoft is said to launch PhotoSynth, which would do exactly that).

Interesting times we live in......


Jörg