On Wed, 04 Jul 2012 07:41:12 +0100, Rod Speed
wrote:

polygonum wrote

And at least some of the satnav issue is simply the cost of updates.
Mine isn't that old, but already I would have spent much more on
updates than the thing cost in the first place, had I gone for them.
Isn't it in our collective interest for the maps to be accurate on all
units?

Yes, but that obviously conflicts with the business models of the
manufacturers.

Some like TomTom do in fact allow their owners to upload
updates and other TomTom owners to use the updates for free.

And other operations are tending towards free updates of the
maps too, basically because they now compete with the maps
that are available to those with smartphones etc for free and for
the users of maps.google etc online in their phones and PDAs etc.

And I shall make quite sure that any replacement doesn't cost £74.95 a
year simply to get the updates. So TomTom's business model only sold one
device to me. And inoculated me against them for ever after.

The minor updates may be worth having but all too often I find that they
are not that useful. For example, long stretch of motorway with very
long-term roadworks, eventually gets updated to set speed limit of 50
there, and it is still 50 though the works finished many months ago.

Shame my smartphone's satnav isn't quite as convenient in several ways -
for that is based on Google maps.

--
Rod