Disappointed with Tele Atlas 2010 Map Update

[Brian-bmw]

I have had my 2010 map update for a couple weeks now, and i am disappointed. It seems to have moved backwards in data quality and usability from what I am used to. Here is my email exchange with Tele Atlats. (I intended my original note to go to BMW, but it got routed to Tele Atlas instead.) I plan to contact BMW-NA.

This is just a quick buyer beware for the new disks. And, if you already have the update, and you notice a loss of performance, you might want to contact Tele Atlatlas and BMW as well.

Originally Posted by Email Exchange with Tele Atlas

-----Original Message-----
From: BMW GPS Maps <[email protected]>
Sent: May 17, 2010 9:36:29 AM GMT
To: Brian
Subject: RE: BMW Map Quality [181259:58577]

Good Morning Brian,

Thank you for contacting us about your map data update. I do sincerely apologize that you didn't find the update beneficial. Tele Atlas has a customer reporting tool called Map Insight. This tool allows customers like yourself to report and provide us map update changes. Map Insight is a web-based reporting system that collects information about differences between Tele Atlas map data and the real world. Although Map Insight presents a map to help you identify the location of a change and then collects detailed information about the change, it does not update the map directly. Map Insight is just one of many inputs into the Tele Atlas operational systems, in addition to our existing sources.

Please visit the website at Map Insight to provide us your feedback directly.

The world around us is constantly changing, we strive to provide the most accurate maps available and our Map Insight reporting tool helps us to do so.

Please don't hesitate to contact us via email or call us directly at 1-866-543-6848 if you should need any further assistance.

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Best Regards,
Corrina
Tele Atlas/BMW
Customer Service Associate

-----Original Message-----
From: "Brian"
Received: 5/10/2010 5:03 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: BMW Map Quality

I have been using BMW navigation systems for almost 10 years now. I just purchased the latest 2010 map update DVD for North America (DVD North America High, part number 65 90 2 158 157). I am a little disappointed in the new map disk set for a number of reasons. I understand that BMW moved to a new map data provider, but this is lower quality than the earlier products—I think that BMW confused volume for value.

1. The new map data are less accurate. A street address error that was corrected over four years ago on the old map disks has appeared again in the 2010 disks.
   
2. The new map data are not as refined. I have noticed that the nav computer now alerts me to “go straight,” “bear rights,” etc. in areas where no instructions are needed. These unnecessary instructions typically come on a high-speed, limited access highway. The old map data somehow had the intelligence coded to let the nav computer know not to speak in those areas.
   
3. The new map data are not as optimized. I have noticed that the nav computer now recommends some less efficient routes that it did not plot using the former map data.
   
4. The new map disks are inconvenient. One of the major advantages of the DVD navigation computer in the newer cars is that all of North America came on a single disk. We have lost that advantage. There may be more data that warrant the multiple disks, but it does not appear that new data are actually useful to me. Now I can no longer plot a long-distance drive in my car effectively, because the data are split across disks.
   
5. The new map disks are much slower. My navigation computer could display a 250 mile scale or 500 mile scale view in a matter of seconds. With the new map disks, the same view takes minutes. This is orders of magnitude slower. This is not a defect in my nav computer or disks, because others I know with new updates and different BMW navigation computers share the problem.

Given #1 and #3 above, I feel like my BMW navigation computer has become less trustworthy and valuable to me. This new data is a move backwards. I hope that BMW works aggressively with this new vendor to correct the problems and resotre the data quality we enjoyed for many years.

Thanks,
Brian