POI Question

[fcoliver]

Looking at all the work so many people are doing to add/update/correct the POIs, it occurs to me that any of these companies (Super-8, Starbucks, Ace Hardware, McDonalds, Exxon) would greatly benefit from having all their locations accurately shown on the TeleAtlas maps. Corporate headquarters certainly would have an accurate list of all their locations, addressess, phone numbers (maybe even GPS coordinates.)

It's to their financial advantage that anyone with a TomTom looking for the closest Caribou Coffee (or WalMart or Hertz Rental) could find it quickly and accurately.

Surely TeleAtlas must have thought of that, and it wouldn't really take much effort from the corporations, just a download from their computer records.

Wonder what it would take to expedite that process?

Second thought: Including ALL the restaurants, motels, gas stations, shopping centers, retail stores, etc. etc. for ALL of North America sounds like a LOT of data (e.g. memory used.) Could they be grouped regionally and loaded into TomTom as needed?

For example, I live in the Southeast and have little use for the Costco locations in California. If I were planning a trip to CA, could the folders be arranged so that I could, for that trip, load all the POIs for California just for that trip?

Just some thoughts, but I be curious to hear the response of those who understand this stuff better.

 

[46jimbo]

Both of your comments are valid and make a lot of sense.

 

[joeneal]

For example, I live in the Southeast and have little use for the Costco locations in California. If I were planning a trip to CA, could the folders be arranged so that I could, for that trip, load all the POIs for California just for that trip? /QUOTE]

This is possible. I have all the ExxonMobil gas stations in the Southern half of USA. I simple remove the POI's for ExxonMobil from the North America Folder in Tom Tom and then add the Exxonmobil stations in the States I will be traveling thru and the destination state. It's very simple to remove and add POI's, (approximately 5 minutes).

 

[fcoliver]

Can anyone address the file size or memory requirements? I gather the POI is just three numbers: lat, long, phone. The .bmp serves for each category (e.g. restaurant), but I guess you'd need a separate .bmp for each subcategory(Wendy's, Hardees, McDonalds, Subway), and I gather there's a way to merge the subcategories into the main.

So not much memory is needed, until you realize there are hundreds of branded restaurants, each with thousands (or tens of thousands) of locations. Then it's a LOT to keep track of.

What do you think would be the best way to organize them... by region? By state?