No offices in Canada?

[21rouge]

There have been numerous posts re lack of support from TT or Tele Atlas re maps and ALG (and maybe even IQ routing) in Canada. From TeleAtlas.com there are 4 offices in the US and none in Canada. And from tomtom.com I see only one office in North America (nothing in Canada). Of course in this day and age a physical location isnt crucial but it does say something .

What are the nuts and bolts of Tele Atlas and TT obtaining map, ALG and IQ data from a country where they dont have a physical presence?

 

[dhn]

Don't complain......when you call Support, the call goes to North America. And there are many companies selling products here with no physical presence (does the name Treo ring a bell?)

 

[21rouge]

Don't complain......when you call Support, the call goes to North America. And there are many companies selling products here with no physical presence (does the name Treo ring a bell?)

I wasnt complaining about phone "Support" but "we" ie Canadians in this forum often lament/complain about the mssing detail in Canadian maps, the absence of advertised ALG etc and I would think that a physical presence indicates more committment and more resources devoted to the country in question.

 

[46jimbo]

The maps are really TeleAtlas's business. And they must have a presence here as I've seen one of their trucks cruising Toronto streets doing mapping.

 

[21rouge]

The maps are really TeleAtlas's business.

Except that now TomTom has acquired Tele Atlas. This reorganization should help the TomTom GPS side of the equation?

And they must have a presence here as I've seen one of their trucks cruising Toronto streets doing mapping.

W/o any offices in Canada they must contract out such work?

W/o knowing the details of actually mapping streets it might be an interesting job?

 

[Gilbert]

W/o any offices in Canada they must contract out such work?

W/o knowing the details of actually mapping streets it might be an interesting job?

I seriously doubt it would be contract work. I saw a documentary about their map making with their trucks and it was impressive with many recording HD cameras, highly sensitive gps and recording equipment. They make their recordings quite detailed, much more than what we get on our gps devices. The end result is similar to what those race simulation games get to do. If memory serves me right, they had 4 cameras on the truck: front, back, right and left.

As for being interesting, I doubt it. Many phases to it. First is recording meaning travelling all those streets up and down making sure the recording gets it right. All the quirks that mean it is incomplete: ?Couldn't do Young st between Bank and Birch because of a fire and police foring traffic two blocks up...? Then transfering all this data to be stored and processed. Processed meaning terabytes of raw data that needs to be compressed and indexed and things like some customers wanting the downtown buildings' ids and footprints and then the customer changing his mind and also requesting all the banks' branches and major stores wherever located.

No I've never worked in that field but worked a long time in computer systems analysis and remember so many projects' changes that I can easily imagine the changing requests and their implications.