How does TomTom get its maps

[calcuttaman]

Just how does TomTom get its maps that they use? I'm guessing someone will pipe up and say Navteq or Teleatlas. OK, do you know where they get there maps from?

I'm especially curious about railroad tracks. They show up all the time on the TomTom. I know in many cases there has not been actual tracks there for 25+ years.

And have you ever been out in the deep woods with your TomTom? Its amazing what roads they have even in the woods. Its kind of funny because alot of those roads they show are so old they have tree's growing in the middle of them!

 

[flyer1024]

And have you ever been out in the deep woods with your TomTom? Its amazing what roads they have even in the woods. Its kind of funny because alot of those roads they show are so old they have tree's growing in the middle of them!

hmmm...which tomtom do you have. There are many many places in my area where there are dirt roads etc where I can drive my vehicle and they are not on any of my maps. In fact I was very disappointed with my unit early on due to the lack of this detail.....Places where I regularly walk my dog etc and where I could track my movement on my earlier GPS....nada on the tomtom.

If I took mine deep in the woods, there'd be nothing except a colored screen staring back at me. same for virtually every woods road around here.

Still, I do enjoy the tomtom. Just don't try to find the old hermit out in the boondocks.

 

[Bama Rambler]

They get the data from public records, drive arounds, satellite data, etc. Public records are where most of the old non-existent roads come from. Railroad right-of-ways are gotten the same way.

 

[calcuttaman]

They get the data from public records, drive arounds, satellite data, etc. Public records are where most of the old non-existent roads come from. Railroad right-of-ways are gotten the same way.

This doesn't seem quite correct. You seem to be implying that there is some sore of public record that TomTom, Navteq, or Teleatlas can go to get this info. Don't they update to show they AREN'T there anymore.

A few of the roads that are on my tomtom are not driveable, they are so overgrown and actually have tree's growing in them. My tomtom has lots of these types of roads in them. There is no way (at least I wouldn't think so) that they got these roads from satalite, and definetaly no way they got it from driving it.

Bama...do you, or anyone else know exactly where they get there records from.

Signed,
Very curious in Michigans U.P.

 

[Pedro2NR]

Teleatlas supplies the maps for TomTom. However, Teleatlas is now working directly for TomTom which help will improve mapupdates. TomTom's rider 1 had Navteq maps but that was removed when the 675 mapudate was introduced.

 

[Bama Rambler]

This doesn't seem quite correct. You seem to be implying that there is some sort of public record that TomTom, Navteq, or Teleatlas can go to get this info. Don't they update to show they AREN'T there anymore.

Bama...do you, or anyone else know exactly where they get there records from.

Signed,
Very curious in Michigans U.P.

Go to the Teleatlas site and search. It tells you almost verbatim what I posted.
Here's my actual experience. I live in a rural town that was layed out and recorded a couple hundred years ago by the man that owned the property. He assigned roads, etc. Well, the town didn't grow exactly like he thought it should. There were new roads built in places, old roads abandoned, etc. we wanted to build a home and during the title search for the land it was found that right where we wanted to build there was a right-of-way recorded. Now, there hadn't ever been a road built there but the ROW was recorded back during the layout so it was official. What I'm saying is that it was public record and a mapping company could have found it and put it on a map.

As for your question "Don't they update to show they AREN'T there anymore." NO, they don't!
We had to go through a lengthy process to get that ROW abandoned and released.

These records are public and anyone can go to the county seat and get them.

 

[Buddharay]

They get the data from public records, drive arounds, satellite data, etc. Public records are where most of the old non-existent roads come from. Railroad right-of-ways are gotten the same way.

yeah, this is pretty accurate. i'd imagine these days it's mostly satellite data for the biggest chunk of data, then mapping vans and public records to fill in the gaps. that's my guess, can't confirm.

mapshare updates that have been confirmed by many users will be implemented into future maps, as well.

if you play around here http://maps.forum.nu/, it utilizes the google maps API and has some of the most updated maps, so you can poke around there to check if things have been updated in current or future map versions (as mapshare recommendations have been reported to be seen).