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TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

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Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#131

Post by acdha »

Thlom wrote: post #112
fork-while-fork wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google maps with Android Auto does auto-learn popular/regular destinations and suggests them at appropriate times. It works pretty well.

Apple Maps as well, but I have no idea why I would need directions to work from home ...

Traffic and accidents might push you into different routes, especially if you have major decision points like which route you take around some geographic feature. When I drive in Los Angeles decades back even people who’d been driving there for ages wanted traffic reports to pick between roughly equivalent freeways because almost inevitably one of them would have much worse congestion due to an accident and you could save 20+ minutes.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#132

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

arrrg wrote: post #120
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true. A lot of "stories" that are released under reporter bylines, are actually verbatim from the corporation or government agency. I wouldn't be surprised if the original text is copyrighted, so people can't play with it too much. Many years ago, an Australian magazine, called Crikey, did a series on Spin in the Media: https://www.crikey.com.au/topic/spinning-the-media/

Nothing to do with copyright at all. Reporters can do with the text however they please. There are no practical legal issues involved. It‘s about making things as convenient as possible for journalists, not legal enforcement of anything.

> It‘s about making things as convenient as possible for journalists

I'm not so sure about that being the principal motive. I think it's actually a way to exert control. I remember discussions with our marketing folks. Pretty eye-opening.

"Communication," in corporations, is really about controlling and shaping the message, and building the brand.

You see these coordinated campaigns, all the time. Usually, they are efforts to control the vocabulary (for example, instead of calling camera flashes "flashes," we try to always refer to them as "speedlights," and get everyone else to use the same language).

Also, you have things like entertainers starting to behave badly, just as their albums and movies are coming out, etc. I'll bet that publicists ask entertainers to time things like divorce announcements, with significant market events.

It's really Machiavellian.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#133

Post by poglet »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #110
kleiba wrote: post #3

For the youngens here on HN: TomTom was once one of the leading manufacturers of GPS navigation systems for cars - purchased as an accessory that was stuck to the wind screen. This was in a time before every car had a screen built in, and before everyone had a smart phone with Google Maps in their pocket. I guess that product is a prime example for becoming irrelevant by society progressing. I actually still use an o…

Nowadays most people just use their smartphone, but there's definitely one market where an "old fashioned" navigation thing like this is still relevant: motorcycles. They need to be high contrast, low power usage (because most motorcycles don't have a power outlet), waterproof, offline, and resistive touch screens (because gloves). I did look into them at one point, but they had a €500 price tag which is a bit steep.

I ended up just purchasing a phone mount that connected to the motorcycle. Set the destination before I left, seemed to work fine. But if you are willing to go to a bit more effort you can purchase USB charger that connects to the battery, and also get gloves that work with capacities screens.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#134

Post by habi »

shp0ngle wrote: post #99
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #6

OpenStreetMap is the second most-important resource on the Internet, after the Wikipedia.

I gave up trying to edit mistakes on OSM. I edited something, one month later someone reverted it back without any explanation. And the UX for discussion is even worse than on Wikipedia, which is saying something. So I have no idea why it was reverted, no idea how to contact the guy and no mood to investigate. So my street has a wrong name and I am too lazy to change it

Every item on OSM (node, way, relation) is versioned and has a history.

If you can link us to your changes I’m happy to try to help find out why your change was reverted. Usually that’s only the case for blatant errors, copying from proprietary maps (ehm, Google Maps) or vandalism.

We’re trying to be a friendly bunch, and I’d like to get you back as an editor.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#135

Post by smallerfish »

dchuk wrote: post #128
contravariant wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow that's an unclear graph, putting the first tick-mark at 1B gives the impression that you're starting at 0, but there is in fact over 0.5B missing from the bottom of the plot. Good trick to remember I suppose.

Any chart that isn't zeroed out is a bad chart

There's very rare cases where it's justified; e.g. if you want to show a drop in company profits from $60.0B to $57.0B, you might want to cut the y-axis so that you're showing more detail of the loss over time (maybe so that you can correlate to the CRO's lame new "motions" that they started in January). I do think it should always be called out visually when doing that though.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#136

Post by acdha »

newjersey wrote: post #121
fork-while-fork wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google maps with Android Auto does auto-learn popular/regular destinations and suggests them at appropriate times. It works pretty well.

> auto-learn There is a gate right behind me that is closed with chains. It isn't possible to drive through there, though you can walk in and out from the smaller gate. Google still always tells me to drive through the gate. I don't think Google Maps auto-learns. Maybe it needs a bigger sample size so people don't abuse it?

If you use the reporting interface they seem to update promptly. There’s a major road near us where Google used to tell people to make a illegal left turn across 4 lanes of traffic, which was common enough that I used to see it almost every time I went by for years. Once I found the well-hidden reporting UI, that stopped two weeks later.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#137

Post by daniel_iversen »

cinntaile wrote: post #60
hotcoffeebear wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tom Tom used to charge for map updates, which became a no-go for many. The same thing thing with built-in ones. Toyota asked 60 euro for the map updates and unfortunately no android/ios auto.. i am going between google maps / apple maps. I find routes better in google maps but i love apple maps voice indications better. I still have also a free lifetime update tomtom but it very slow to add destination etc.

> Tom Tom used to charge for map updates, which became a no-go for many. This is what led to their demise, no?

I would say so (that and the smartphone as ppl points out) - they announced subscription service around 2009-2011 from what I can see online and we can see the interest falling drastically since:

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=tomtom

.. that's also when I stopped using them I think, and what's interesting is that once you get into the habit of using a new map+navigation service it seems quite hard to switch or is that just me? (I want to try Apple because I like them more than Google but I'm just so used to Google Maps)

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#138

Post by rapind »

gorbachev wrote: post #114
cinntaile wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tom Tom used to charge for map updates, which became a no-go for many. This is what led to their demise, no?

That's definitely why I stopped using TomTom. Like gambiting, I really liked their product. They were compact, fast and the UX was great. But Google Maps is free.

> But Google Maps is free.

We need a new alternative word for "free" when it comes to advertising companies. Something short to say "the cost is too abstract and indirect to understand fully or describe, but does impact society at large". Maybe "free-ish"?

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#139

Post by MichaelZuo »

acomjean wrote: post #37
wokwokwok wrote: post #29

I’m not sure what I just read, but it felt like it was AI generated. … full of words, and absolutely no information. Even the linked page ( https://www.tomtom.com/tomtom-maps-platform/ ) really doesn’t make it even remotely clear what they’re announcing, or why we should care. > The world lacks a truly open and collaborative mapping ecosystem, one that doesn’t follow a one-size-fits-all model but is flexible so that…

“We’ll dive deeper into how TomTom will use OSM data soon, so stay tuned.“ So this was an announcement of an announcement…

It reminds me of several Dilbert strips.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#140

Post by baq »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #20
kleiba wrote: post #3

For the youngens here on HN: TomTom was once one of the leading manufacturers of GPS navigation systems for cars - purchased as an accessory that was stuck to the wind screen. This was in a time before every car had a screen built in, and before everyone had a smart phone with Google Maps in their pocket. I guess that product is a prime example for becoming irrelevant by society progressing. I actually still use an o…

> a prime example for becoming irrelevant by society progressing There's still the use case of driving in remote areas with less-than-ideal or expensive connectivity (though probably those spots don't really require sophisticated nav), and also that you might not want to tell ad monopolies your location data.

google maps work quite well with offline data in airplane mode.
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