Anyone else hugely disappointed with MapShare?

[Internetpilot]

Is anyone else here hugely disappointed (or at least unimpressed) with MapShare? Or maybe I'm doing something wrong?

I just don't really see the purpose or use for it. I put in a bunch of changes via MapShare because there have been a ton of changes in my area of the country, even from the maps that were just released not too long ago for v7. I don't get to see my own updates, TomTom doesn't seem to be doing anything with the updates, and nothing I've downloaded from their MapShare program (via TTHome) has shown to benefit me at all.

How does TomTom know what MapShare changes to send to me? Do they send me ones near my home (Florida) or am I slowly getting MapShare changes starting with what some guy up in New York City reported the first week after MapShare was implemented?

So far, I just haven't seen a single benefit for it, and therefore it seems like nothing but hype to me.

DeLorme's StreetAtlas 2008 application allows you to add, change, delete, expand, etc., any and all roads so that you are actually and immediately updating your own maps. I thought MapShare was going to be something more like that, but it seems to be just stagnant, useless feature providing no benefit to anyone.

Does anyone else feel this way? Is it more useful when you live in a major city? I'm just completely disallusioned with the whole MapShare thing.

 

[Birdman]

Is anyone else here hugely disappointed (or at least unimpressed) with MapShare? Or maybe I'm doing something wrong?

I just don't really see the purpose or use for it. I put in a bunch of changes via MapShare because there have been a ton of changes in my area of the country, even from the maps that were just released not too long ago for v7. I don't get to see my own updates, TomTom doesn't seem to be doing anything with the updates, and nothing I've downloaded from their MapShare program (via TTHome) has shown to benefit me at all.

How does TomTom know what MapShare changes to send to me? Do they send me ones near my home (Florida) or am I slowly getting MapShare changes starting with what some guy up in New York City reported the first week after MapShare was implemented?

So far, I just haven't seen a single benefit for it, and therefore it seems like nothing but hype to me.

DeLorme's StreetAtlas 2008 application allows you to add, change, delete, expand, etc., any and all roads so that you are actually and immediately updating your own maps. I thought MapShare was going to be something more like that, but it seems to be just stagnant, useless feature providing no benefit to anyone.

Does anyone else feel this way? Is it more useful when you live in a major city? I'm just completely disallusioned with the whole MapShare thing.

Do you see any CA****.ov2 files on your TomTom? (such as CA7376.ov2). I believe these files are updates mapshare POIs. Not sure about the actual street updates.

I can tell you this much...I have changed the direction of a short piece of road that they allowed you to travel both ways ...they would actually route me in the wrong direction on a 20ft little road junction. Since I've made my correction, it doesn't route me the wrong direction now.

 

[Wiley]

I can tell you this much...I have changed the direction of a short piece of road that they allowed you to travel both ways ...they would actually route me in the wrong direction on a 20ft little road junction. Since I've made my correction, it doesn't route me the wrong direction now.

Yes, but would your neighbor's TomTom also reflect that change, assuming they have a Mapshare capable unit that is periodically sync'd with Home? I think that's what Internetpilot is driving at.

Has anyone noted changes to their map via downloaded Mapshare updates through Home?

I think TomTom is going to lose a lot of marketing traction if they can't substantiate the value of Mapshare to those new customers that bought into the hype.

 

[georges99]

I , am from Montreal Canada, and I have the GO 920, and it's the same for me, Mapshare is a marketing tool, every changes that I made, are still there, and with all the updates that I received, nothing on my changes as Being done.


I contacted TomTom yesterday, and, these people, do not know what there talking about. I explain my frustration with Mapshare, I also explain that there GPS is of by +/- 600 feet on POI, and also another problem they have, is sometimes your destination is right there on your left, but instead of making you turn on the left, it makes you do a big detour, so you arrive on the right of your car...


What I am the most unhappy with, is the fact that when I give it an address, it takes me a quarter of a mile away from my destination. It was never accurate since I owned this 920.

Anyways, the experience with them over the phone was a bad one. I asked the person at TomTom if he had similar problems like the one's I have, and he reply that he doesn't own a GPS... and later in the conversation, he said that he owned a GARMIN !

I f the employees had a TomTom, they would understand our problems, and frustrations

TomTom doesn't give a **** about it , you are stock with it. Nothing as was done to help me, and nothing will be done either. You close the line after venting with them for an hour, and you are even more frustrated, and nothing more.

Thinking about it, we should all sign a petition for our problems, and send it to them, because he said that he never heard of these problems before.

George

 

[tuckermans]

I have asked this question before and it was not answered.

I agree mapshare is disapointing, BUT.. here is my question and point.
There has to be a number or percent of people who make a change before tom tom shares it with everyone. Just because I make a proper change, I am sure tomtom does not share it with others otherwise I could purposely make wrong changes to screw everyones map up. If we really want to see if map shares works, we need to post a change on here, have a bunch of us change it, while a couple does not, and see if they get the changes. Think about it for a minute, if ALL changes were passed along, 1 person could screw up all maps.

If you want to try this go
N42.72491
w70.99225
POI - Restuarants -
Find "Old towne tavern"
change name to "Georgetown Grille"
lets see is tom tom passes it along

 

[Birdman]

Has anyone selected the feature on map share to download ALL updates? I, for one, don't want to trust every change that people make, so I have it set to accept my own changes and those verified by TomTom.

I know that mine changes are showing on my TomTom and I've received custom POIs as I noted in my post above. Not sure if TomTom passed along any map changes that they verified other than the POIs.

If anyone is brave enough, you COULD choose to accept every change that most people make.....then maybe you'd see more updates in real time....but I wouldn't trust them.


If the frustration is with TomTom not verifying things 'fast enough' then that is, perhaps, a valid argument. They could wait until they had a fair amount of changes that they verify before releasing them, however, with the database that exists, there is no reason why changes cannot be put directly into the database right after they are verified.....they could be available right away for the next moment someone uses HOME to synch up.

Also, has everyone physically gone in and selected the following:
* MAP CORRECTIONS
* DOWNLOAD CORRECTIONS BY OTHERS

This isn't done by default and you have to manually set yourself up to receive these updates and then select the filtering that suits you.

 

[SShadow]

I have always had mine set up to download all changes. Have I noticed any changes myself? No.
However, I added (and shared) a large amount of POIs in a newly developed area near my city, and another member here DID get those POIs updated in his TT.

As for POIs being off, and addresses as well, that has been explained here time and time again. The POIs are added via address - and the addresses are estimated as to where they fall on the road in question (ie the addresses are spaced evenly along the road - so some addresses may appear where a field is even though there is no home there.)
Now I'm not familiar with Garmin, but I believe that this practice is the same for all? *shrug*
Remember, at the best of times, there will be accuracy issues of at least 50 metres - we're not using military grade GPS here... So I'd rather TT work on getting their routing algorythms fixed up. My TT routes me some strange ways, but it always gets me close to where I need to go.

 

[F22]

I do think Mapshare has been oversold.

It will not result in maps being updated in the next week or two. It might not even result in changes being reflected in the next year. The maps themselves have to be edited (whatever technical/programming is necessary) by the map compilers, changes checked by in-field reps or some other method.

Since the map is ONE FILE, I don't believe that they have the ability to do on-the-fly patches to any small portion. It does appear that you can CLOSE a road but you cannot easily (or at all) add a road.

POI changes can be more easily shared.

I suspect that we are all spoiled and would like instant gratification - it is NOT going to happen.

I have not kept up-to-date on Delorme but I do recall there was a way to draw in missing roads with their mapping software. But do they have a gps that can use those edited maps? If so, that may be the way to go for people in fast changing areas.

 

[drkramer]

I dug into this and was told (by TomTom support) that TeleAtlas (map makers which TomTom uses) actually makes the updates and periodically passes the changes back to subscribers.

TeleAtlas was recently in play as TomTom and (IIRC) Garmin were in a bidding war to acquire. TomTom was recently the winner, but I'll bet there is a lot of turmoil over at TeleAtlas about who they are now, and map updates are taking a back seat. I know in my neighborhood (just outside of DC and heavily mapped), there is a new complex that is over a year in existence that still shows as a makeshift ballfield. That was true in the 6.x and the new 7.x maps.

 

[IsLNdbOi]

So MapShare is basically huge BS hype. That sucks. MapShare was one of the reasons I was considering keeping my GO 920T over my Garmin.

 

[drkramer]

I don't think it's hype really. It is an excellent idea. Look at wikipedia. They just need to get focus on collecting data, vetting it, and passing it back. If they develop a wiki approach so that members can analyze and somehow help with the vetting process, even better. It's new frontier for them and they are having enough issue keeping their servers up and docs (not) up to date

 

[Internetpilot]

Ugh, thanks everyone for confirming what I feared. I think TomTom needs to change it to "POIShare" because obviously MAPS are not being updated.

Since upgrading my GO700 to v7 of the software (and buying the v7 map upgrade, too), I have had it set to download all updates from everyone. I have still yet to see any of my updates come back, whether POI additions/updates, road name changes, etc.

I was worried when I first read about MapShare that it was going to be all hype. TomTom has still yet to really clarify timelines for MapShare subscriptions. Frankly, since I have yet to see ANY MapShare changes (even my own), I'm going to be rather peeved when my one years subscription to MapShare is up. Nothing in my area of the country changed with the v6 to v7 map update, so I only bought the v7 map update so I could participate in the MapShare program. Now it just seems like a complete waste of money.

The DeLorme product works with Palm and Windows Mobile PDAs, but the on-PDA routing is DOG slow. It's basically a very good street atlas application, but a lousey GPS navigation app. If you're driving around with a full fledged notebook computer in your car, the GPS navigation features reportedly work great, but I know from experience that it's dog slow routing and very jerky navigation on a PDA. It's a shame, too, because DeLorme support is superb (very responsive with multiple ways to get information) and the ability to just draw in your map changes yourself is an excellent feature and sounds a lot like what MapShare should've been (but clearly isn't).

Oh, well. Thanks for at least confirming my sanity. MapShare stinks. Haha. At least it sounded good.

 

[chillyjim]

The DeLorme product works with Palm and Windows Mobile PDAs, but the on-PDA routing is DOG slow. It's basically a very good street atlas application, but a lousey GPS navigation app. If you're driving around with a full fledged notebook computer in your car, the GPS navigation features reportedly work great, but I know from experience that it's dog slow routing and very jerky navigation on a PDA.

I did this for many years because the portable GPS maps were so bad, not that they are even close to Street Atlas but they are better than they were. Street Atlas was miserable for a GPS interface, it would get me lost as often as it would get it right.

I really hope TomTom will start updating maps and POIs a LOT more often. I really miss the maps and POIs from DeLorme, but the portable GPS is still a win for me.

 

[martinp13]

At least it sounds like you guys are actually getting SOME updates from TomTom/TeleAtlas. I have not gotten ANY map or POI updates at all... zero. I'm curious if it's because I haven't made any changes myself?

As far as I can see, MapShare is complete vaporware.

 

[dhn]

At least it sounds like you guys are actually getting SOME updates from TomTom/TeleAtlas. I have not gotten ANY map or POI updates at all... zero. I'm curious if it's because I haven't made any changes myself?

As far as I can see, MapShare is complete vaporware.

You need at least version 6.75 of maps to make it work, a PC (not a Mac) and have 'subscribed' to mapshare using TomTom Home's (version 2+) menu options. Done all that?

 

[The Spook]

Question for all you guys; How do you 'know' that you do not have any mapshare updates. They are completely transparent.

If another user changes a street name or direction, or blocks/unblocks a road, and you receive that correction, it is not obvious that something changed unless you know where to look. There is nothing that indicates a changed map area. Of course, you can remove all mapshare downloads from your device and try to spot-the-difference, but unless you know where to look that is a very big job.

I know this works as advertised because I have seen it working. Changes (oneway direction changes) that I reported, then removed the 'personal correction' from my tomtom, came back to me as 'approved' corrections from tomtom.

And, to set the record straight (for the last time I hope), it was never said that you could add roads to the map. You can't! The only changes you (or tomtom) can make to your current map are street name, street direction, block / unblock street and add/remove/edit POI. Any other mapshare option is just a 'report'!

Personally, I am hugely impressed with mapshare. I have corrected street names, directions and unblocked roads that were incorrectly 'closed' and it has all worked perfectly, as advertised. But then, I am not expecting it to be able to do things that it was never designed (or advertised) to do!

 

[martinp13]

You need at least version 6.75 of maps to make it work, a PC (not a Mac) and have 'subscribed' to mapshare using TomTom Home's (version 2+) menu options. Done all that?

Yep! Version 7 of the maps, a PC, and I've gotten to the point where I've subscribed to map changes made by anyone or their dog. Still nothing.

 

[martinp13]

Question for all you guys; How do you 'know' that you do not have any mapshare updates. They are completely transparent.

Transparent on the map, but when you connect using TomTom HOME2, it has the three categories at the bottom of the Update screen. I get the GPS Data file up top every week or so, but I have NEVER gotten an update for any of the three items at the bottom (maps, POIs, etc).

Maybe the updates have snuck by me... I'll see if I can disable the MapShare stuff tonight.

 

[flyer1024]

The spook's comment is absolutely my experience as well.

not being able to add streets is a no brainer. I can imagine what might happen if people were able to draw roads and send that to mapshare.

 

[flyer1024]

Yep! Version 7 of the maps, a PC, and I've gotten to the point where I've subscribed to map changes made by anyone or their dog. Still nothing.

strange. I see map changes almost every time I use home and that's every few days. I've only seen one POI update though.