Many of you already know about the Event Logger software for TomTom at http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Event_Logger_on_TomTom. I have grander things in mind...
As customizable as the TomTom software is, and as flexible as the Linux-based hardware is, we all know there are still a few rough spots. Some of us are software developers and would love for the TomTom navigation software to be open enough that we could take a crack at solving some of the problems and adding our own features... but it appears unlikely that TomTom will update the SDK or release the source code. There are likely partner agreements and intellectual property issues that are beyond TomTom's control, and the routing algorithms they use are closely guarded trade secrets, if they belong to TomTom at all (they may be licensed from a third party).
The alternative is to use the Open Street Map project's maps, built from traces from us users and from U.S. Census street data, and develop one or more of the open source routing packages (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Routing) into an alternative that can be patched/maintained by the community.
The first step: help make the map as accurate as possible by submitting traces. Use Event Logger (Trip Master or whatever) to create traces that are not based on TomTom's maps (the OpenStreetMap wiki has instructions for how to do this) and maximize the accuracy of the maps.
As customizable as the TomTom software is, and as flexible as the Linux-based hardware is, we all know there are still a few rough spots. Some of us are software developers and would love for the TomTom navigation software to be open enough that we could take a crack at solving some of the problems and adding our own features... but it appears unlikely that TomTom will update the SDK or release the source code. There are likely partner agreements and intellectual property issues that are beyond TomTom's control, and the routing algorithms they use are closely guarded trade secrets, if they belong to TomTom at all (they may be licensed from a third party).
The alternative is to use the Open Street Map project's maps, built from traces from us users and from U.S. Census street data, and develop one or more of the open source routing packages (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Routing) into an alternative that can be patched/maintained by the community.
The first step: help make the map as accurate as possible by submitting traces. Use Event Logger (Trip Master or whatever) to create traces that are not based on TomTom's maps (the OpenStreetMap wiki has instructions for how to do this) and maximize the accuracy of the maps.
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