MapShare Shapes Tele Atlas Maps
Today, Tele Atlas announced that their most recent map release, 2009.02, now includes improvements to the geometry of roads based on data collected from TomTom MapShare. The previous release from Tele Atlas also included data gleaned from MapShare, however the incorporated changes were typically road attribute changes such as those related to direction of travel or turn restrictions. Now, Tele Atlas is taking a look at tracklog data from users of TomTom devices that have opted in to share the data and are using that data to change the shape of roads and identify locations where improvements are necessary. Let’s check this out in action with some pictures.
Taking a look at this picture, the blue lines represent tracklog data collected from TomTom users who have opted into sharing this data. The red “x” marks indicate the location of individual trackpoints. As you can see, there are a few roads drawn that no longer reflect the real world road network.
The Tele Atlas system can identify that the tracklog data collected doesn’t match up with their road database. After the problem area has been identified, they can verify the new data and include it in their map. You can see the corrections applied by viewing the current map at Google Maps below.
So that is a good example of identifying an area where significant changes need to be made– in this case it looks like a new housing development. Changes are not always that significant, however. Consider this picture. The orange/yellow lines are where this particular road was drawn in a previous version of the Tele Atlas database. The black “x” marks show where TomTom users have been driving. The red line shows the proposed new locations for the road based on that data. The road isn’t being moved by a huge distance, but far enough to impact a navigation system.
TomTom and Tele Atlas are really showing how their relationship can be used to their advantage. Being able to identify areas that need to be updated based on tracklog data appears to be a big advantage that should enable Tele Atlas to more quickly make map adjustments that reflect our constantly changing world.
“Community input allows Tele Atlas to quickly and automatically see what’s happening across all areas of our database to pinpoint places where changes to the road network may be needed,” said Tele Atlas Vice President of Research and Development Rob van Essen. “Once we verify such feedback through our many other sources or through field tests, we can add them to our database far faster than traditional means have ever allowed.”
You can also listen to a podcast about the announcement.
