The map data comes from Navteq, yes -- Garmin and many other GPS companies do indeed use their data.

The data is just one small piece of the puzzle, however, hence the variety of different GPS makers and products out there. You can have two (different) units in a vehicle and travel and route to the same destination and have different driving guidance, routing, and mapping shown to you. Seen it happen (have driven to Dallas from San Antonio, and other locales, letting the FEH do its nav -- for the entertainment of my passengers -- and using my Garmin Streetpilot as my actual navigation aid.) One will do fine when the other has a 'brain fart', etc. It also depends on how the units are configured (less speaking of the FEH one since configuration options are a bit limited in it compared to aftermarket units.)

 

Navteq does do the map data for Garmin. And it can be worse, in that Garmin handles their own distribution. So, the data used, can be even older. I mean, Navteq could have fixed/updated their map data, but subsequently Garmin releases "new" maps based on the older data.

I have a Garmin for years now, and I find that Garmin lags Navteq by almost 2 years. I have reported a error in one of my local streets (it is a 1-way, but the map data showed it as 2-way) about two years ago. Six months after I reported it, Navteq's map viewer on their own website showed the change, but it wasn't until Garmin's 2008 map update, that I just got, that it shows the fix.

 

Yep went to the website when I first got my FEH in may and the changes were already logged. So now they have released a "new" version with old data that they knew was wrong, wrong for a long time. THese are not dirt roads either. So can I trust the nav system when I'm in an unfamilar city?

 

I think that is true, to some extent, for most nav systems which keep a local copy of the map data.

The only real alternative is to use something like Verizon's VZ Navigator, that makes use of map data that is updated constantly.

 

I think the problem is alot less than trying to use printed maps.... unfortuatnely all info for driving is going to be somewhat out of date. Since NavTEQ is providing the data and its wrong.. it would seem you would be screwed no matter what GPS system you are using until it filters into the latest release of maps. It sucks that it took two years to get us a new copy... but I'll bet most of the copies for other GPS's being released right now have the same errors... they are based on the older data. Its not a instantaneous conversion... the data has to be translated for each system, the CD/DVD masters have to be created and manufactured.... its always going to be a bit behind.

A printed map could be even worse.

That being said in a unknown city you'll be a heck of a lot better off now than before, better off than with a printed map and my parents never died or starved before finding a McDonalds with 10 year old printed maps in their glove compartments

Nature of the beast I'm afraid...

Someday they will be over the air programmable and will update constantly. The verizon navigator mentioned uses an over the air map but even that database can be old.

 

yea I'm just a little po'ed one of the roads really should have been on the map by now it was built and opened in febuary of 2003. My road I take to work was built and opened in march of 2005. Both are shown to be pastures.

 

The access road they built back in 2002, that runs to the industrial park where I work, finally is shown in the 2008 map update disk I just got for my Garmin. Until this, it showed me driving thru a cemetery, and complained I was "off road".

 

"make an immediate safe u turn" "To continue on your route please make an immediate safe u turn" Shut up shut up!!! "warning off road condition---please make an immediate safe u turn"

 

Actually it says "please make a legal U turn" which sounds like "please make illegal U turn" so that is what I do, and if the officer asks, I'll blame it on the nav system--so I have an out . Obviously, just kidding.

 

OK... dumb question....

Do the newer 2007 4V discs, which come from Navteq, have the Ford logo and a Ford part number on them? Or are they truly Navteq disks?

I was wondering if Ford, itself, will be offering the update, and possibly at a better price???