Re: GPS and Map interactivity

From: Karl Pollak (guser_at_nospam.org)
Date: 01/28/05 

Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 02:56:20 GMT

x-no-archive: yes
"john" <john@hudson8889.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:

>My cycnical interpretation is that the car routers have bought/digitized a
>low grade/outdated copy of the OS maps to avoid copyright problems and cut
>costs. They have then checked out the major routes and town centres and
>corrected their maps by GPS but haven't bothered with the rural routes.

My guess is that the people who are doing the digitizing probably rely on
consumer grade maps, especially city maps, rather than use official,
surveyed maps. In addition, the people doing the digitizing, naturally
have absolutely no local knowledge of the places they are working on.

I have noticed that publishers of street maps (the tourist stuff you get at
the gasoline station), often introduce deliberate errors into their maps.
On occassion it may be just a poor choice to include a road where there is
only a legal easement but no actual road had been built. Misspelled local
names are rather frequent as well.

Let's face it, to map the entire planet to the satisfaction of most GPS
afficionados owuld be a rather monumental task and to do so accurately
would be nearly imposible. If most people consider the current products to
be expensive, and I am one of them, just imagine how much it would have to
cost if they did a really good job of the maps. 

-- 
Greetings from Lotusland

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