Navteq database correction

The following is the reply I received, today, about a database error I
observed on a trip to North Carolina. The GPS (eXplorist 400) reported
me driving up to 1 mile OFF the road as shown on the map screen.

Here is the reply:
Note the date!
=====================================================================

Thank you for your recent Map Report. We have completed our
investigation of your Map Report.

For the NAVTEQ tracking number: 0051V6WWIJ30J1HB
Submitted on : 21, Feb 2007 03:19:07
Problem Description: Road track information is incorrect. From I-40 to
Gastonia the path indicated by the GPS wanders from the displayed road
on the basemap. Intersections seem to be correct, but other parts of
the road track depart from the provided track.


Our Resolution Outcome is: No Change Necessary - Database Reflects Reality
Details: The database is correct and US-321 from Gastonia to I-40
reflects reality.

For more details, proceed to your Map Report at
http://mapreporter.navteq.com

NAVTEQ delivers regularly scheduled map updates to our business partners
which include database enhancements. The commercial release dates for
these products will vary depending on each business partner’s product
plans. If your Map Report did not result in a database change, please
note that we track these items and evaluate them with our business
partners on a regular basis to enhance navigation system performance.

Having the latest map in your system makes a difference to system
performance with the latest roads, addresses and Points of Interest. If
you are interested in an updated map for your navigation system, please
contact your system provider or check our online store at
http://store.navteq.com .

We welcome your feedback on the NAVTEQ Map. Thank you for helping to
keep the NAVTEQ Map the most accurate and highest quality in the business.

Regards,
The NAVTEQ Map Reporter Team

First it takes them time to send someone out to actually survey the
route.

Second what they are saying is that Magellan hasn't updated their maps
in a year or three or ...

chuck wrote:

But does it actually SAY that? It appears that they are just telling my
that my observations were in error (which they weren't), rather than
saying that the data in my GPS was in error, and that the error had been
corrected in a later version. NOT what they said.

Ron Hunter wrote:



What road did you see yourself as being one mile off of? If you can
tell us that and the approximate lat/long or a cross road, maybe we
could tell you if the Garmin MapSource mapping (which uses NavTeq data)
has same error. That might narrow it down to being a Magellan error and
not a NavTeq error.

Another way is to look at the location in Google maps. If both the map
and satellite photos show the road in the same place, then it would
definitely seem to be an error in the data as presented by the Magellan.

Jack

Jack Erbes wrote:

That information was in the original post. The road (321) between
Gastonia and I40 in North Carolina was off by up to a mile, showing me
west of the roadway on the map display, except at intersections with
other highways, where it came back into correspondence with the map
display. I have seen the same type of errors on some county roads south
of Ft. Worth, TX., but those are trivial, and may have to do with not
having enough satellites in range, since the errors there were on the
order of 100ft or so, but this was not the case with the North Carolina
trip. I suspect that NAVTEQ was trying to say that the database
(current) was correct, but that Magellan had used an older database, but
if so, they said it very poorly.

Generally, the map display and position sensing are accurate enough to
determine what lane I am in at an interchange, which I find amazing.
Get off the main roads, though, and the database seems to get less
accurate.

I realize that these companies make money selling their database
information, but I feel that the GPS using public deserves at LEAST an
accurate to that date, database when the device is purchased. One
should be able to get ONE database update when the device is purchased,
and reasonably priced updates annually after that. Sadly, these
companies seem to think that we should buy the database anew, each time.
BAD BUSINESS.