Currently there are three main providers of offline maps (offline maps) in the market, Teleatlas that are currently made by the company TomTom, Here previously called Navteq and that are made by Nokia which is currently owned by Microsoft and OpenStreetMap (OSM) map created by a community of developers and users where their information and license is open.
Both maps are distributed to all navigation software companies, such as Sygic, TomTom, Garmin, Copilot, iGO, PTV, among many others. These software companies usually work with a brand, Teleatlas, Here or OSM and others usually integrate several cartographies according to the geographical area, since in some places a cartography may be more exact and in other places another cartography, we will also talk about this.
Parallel to the maps, the companies Teleatlas, Here, and OSM produce other types of information for large vehicles. This information is the one that details the height of bridges, tunnels, streets, prohibitions by tonnage and dimensions ... But unfortunately this information has been collected for very few years, that is why, in some countries, the percentage of information It is very low in dimensions and for this reason a GPS navigator can lead you to very serious mistakes. For this reason, when these companies sell their devices, they reiterate in the information that they pay close attention to traffic signs and do not trust 100% in the indications that the GPS navigator offers us.
Another very important aspect is that these maps mentioned above offer different information depending on the area. For example, Here is more reliable on primary roads and well-known areas of the most important cities, which is more useful for those drivers who circulate in these areas and Teleatlas offers more detailed information on secondary roads and areas of less known cities, but This errors may vary according to the area and the country. However, OSM is a cartography developed by people who use GPS and navigators and for work they do not receive anything in return, that is, they nourish the map with truthful information with the simple fact of improving their experience when they use the map, this makes updates of OSM maps are more constant because there are thousands of people adding very important information to the map.
In the case of HERE and TomTom, you may have observed on some occasion, in your travels, vehicles on the road with a series of cameras on the roof. These vehicles are in charge of collecting the measurements of all streets and highways and their dimensions. Both are constantly on the roads and cities around the world. But there is a big problem, in many places, such as secondary roads, small towns and neighborhoods in many cities, where they do not usually circulate regularly or only did so once many, many years ago.
It is for this reason that offline maps are sometimes very inaccurate and can lead to serious confusion, and loss of time especially for drivers of large vehicles such as trucks, buses and caravans. Another problem is the interpretation of the map by the navigation software, since this can show you an inappropriate route depending on the programming made by the software manufacturer.
Apart from all this information, it is very important to know how to interpret and handle the tools that the navigation software offers us to create the route, that is why we advise once the route is created, visualize the route and check on an online map, such as that of Google to affirm that we are going for a correct site for the type of vehicle we are driving. In this way, if we have a smartphone, we can create the same route with the Google map, it has the exact information of the whole world since its maps are made by taking satellite photographs, but there is a big problem with these maps, They are only offered online so an internet connection is necessary to use them, something that will make it difficult for us to use them and due to the low coverage and high economic costs, there is also the problem that Google maps do not have the measurements of bridges, tonnages, and oversize vehicle restrictions.
We have also had customer comments about the poor accuracy of speed cameras. Currently, software companies collect information from their users, on fixed and mobile radar checks and sporadic police checks. These information are simply geographical coordinates of three types: fixed radars, mobile radars and routine controls. Therefore, we advise users of some navigation software to avoid continually receiving alerts and then no such controls, deactivate the alert function for mobile speed cameras and routine controls and only leave the fixed speed camera function activated.
For this reason, no map at present is 100% reliable and we could not give any real advice to choose one map or another, there are many comments from drivers where they give us information about the routes they take and their errors.
At NavionTruck we know our responsibility and we have not stopped working and innovating since in 2009 we founded our first stage as sellers of satellite navigation systems, years later, we decided to create our own brand and develop our own navigation devices. We are currently immersed in a great project where the most important thing is you, to solve these problems that exist today, we are aware of the difficulty, but we have already walked 50% of the way. Very soon we will show you the result of this important challenge that we have set ourselves, which is to change satellite navigation as we know it today.
Na NavionTruck sabemos a nossa responsabilidade e não paramos de trabalhar e inovar desde que em 2009 fundamos nossa primeira etapa como vendedores de sistemas de navegação por satélite, anos depois decidimos criar nossa própria marca e desenvolver nossos próprios aparelhos de navegação. Estamos atualmente imersos em um grande projeto onde o mais importante é você, para resolver esses problemas que existem hoje, estamos cientes da dificuldade, mas já percorremos 50% do caminho. Muito em breve mostraremos o resultado deste importante desafio que nos propusemos, que é mudar a navegação por satélite como a conhecemos hoje.