TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem • Hacker News Board

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#291

Post by cyclever » Wed, Nov 02, 2022, 2:39 PM UTC

b4je7d7wb wrote: post #257

kybernetyk wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps has a few quirks. Here in Germany it always prefers to send you through 30km/h residential zones. Which might be somewhat faster than taking congested main roads but those 30km/h zones are terrible to drive through. There's always cars parked at one side of the street so you have to wait for oncoming traffic. The streets usually are very narrow. So the stress level to the driver is way higher. I also noti…

That sounds horrible for yellow and red cars. I hope all new cars are green.

I hope cars are mostly forbidden in cities soon.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#292

Post by EGreg » Wed, Nov 02, 2022, 2:40 PM UTC

Aeolun wrote: post #205

Dinux wrote: post #142

I don't understand the 'everything was better when it wasn't google' mentality that is so often found in these threads. My dad used to work at TomTom right here in the Netherlands. They used to be a fun and innovative company to work for. When it became apparent they entered a multibillion dollar business it was all about the money. As someone who used TomTom before other options became available I can honestly say t…

Google maps is fantastic. It beats literally everything else I can think of. But that’s scary. I want a competitor that offers at least roughly similar quality, but Google is so far ahead that it’s no contest.

Why doesn’t the open source community organize around projects that are just as far? Chrome and Safari were based on open source projects like Konqueror, Webkit, Chromium and Blink. They do 90% of the heavy lifting.

Want an open source facebook / twitter? Here you go: https://qbix.com/platform

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#293

Post by unethical_ban » Wed, Nov 02, 2022, 2:40 PM UTC

colanderman wrote: post #255

drtz wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps has been a really garbage experience for me lately, so much so that I've been actively looking for alternatives. Sadly, there aren't many. Some of problems I've had with Google Maps recently: - Routing gives me weird bypasses that aren't necessary and often actually add time to the trip. I've started to not trust the routing. - The UX when searching for places is extremely difficult to navigate, especiall…

> - planning a route _without_ asking for directions is near impossible because many street and landmark names are not displayed This drives me absolutely batty . No matter how much I zoom in, I cannot see exit number labels. Sometimes they show up, at random places along the exit ramp, but I haven't figured out the rhyme or reason how. Real maps clearly label exit numbers of every exit. I don't understand why this i…

Or I'll see a street name I'm looking for, zoom in directly on that name, and it disappears.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#294

Post by rakejake » Wed, Nov 02, 2022, 2:41 PM UTC

cduzz wrote: post #289

Dinux wrote: post #142

I don't understand the 'everything was better when it wasn't google' mentality that is so often found in these threads. My dad used to work at TomTom right here in the Netherlands. They used to be a fun and innovative company to work for. When it became apparent they entered a multibillion dollar business it was all about the money. As someone who used TomTom before other options became available I can honestly say t…

A classic monopolist move is to use monopoly power from one business unit (such as rented computers) and offer an unrelated service at well below market rates in another market (perhaps online retail). The incumbents don't have the crutch of the other business unit and can't price match, and go out of business. Then the monopolist raises prices and there's no competition and no alternative. It's fine, though google m…

Google owns Waze

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#295

Post by tomrod » Wed, Nov 02, 2022, 2:41 PM UTC

Dinux wrote: post #142

I don't understand the 'everything was better when it wasn't google' mentality that is so often found in these threads. My dad used to work at TomTom right here in the Netherlands. They used to be a fun and innovative company to work for. When it became apparent they entered a multibillion dollar business it was all about the money. As someone who used TomTom before other options became available I can honestly say t…

Google maps used to work much better, IMHO, in speed and directions. Their insertion of POI and advertisements into the applications and the website slowed down the chrome a lot.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#296

Post by rapind » Wed, Nov 02, 2022, 2:45 PM UTC

saiya-jin wrote: post #208

rapind wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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"?

There is no free lunch. Its more like you expect some idealized absolutism in market economy from people who need to eat and pay their mortgages. Its uncommon to meet an adult with such expectations, its mostly reserved for children up to certain age.

> It’s uncommon to meet an adult with such expectations

I don’t think this is an accurate assumption. Many adults probably have a nagging feeling about this version of free, I doubt most of us can accurately describe the cost (and most wouldn’t care to try).

I mean it really does “feel” free in that the costs are so abstract and externalized. In fact I’d argue that it has completely changed our perspective on pricing, value, and entitlement.

Anyways, total tangent to the main topic.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#297

Post by lostlogin » Wed, Nov 02, 2022, 2:47 PM UTC

mminer237 wrote: post #226

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Apple Maps cross platform or only exclusive to Apple devices?

Only Apple devices

Per the other comment here, Duckduckgo uses Apple data.

https://venturebeat.com/business/duckduckgo-ducks-google-to-...

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#298

Post by mradek » Wed, Nov 02, 2022, 2:49 PM UTC

Dinux wrote: post #142

I don't understand the 'everything was better when it wasn't google' mentality that is so often found in these threads. My dad used to work at TomTom right here in the Netherlands. They used to be a fun and innovative company to work for. When it became apparent they entered a multibillion dollar business it was all about the money. As someone who used TomTom before other options became available I can honestly say t…

I use TomTom’s API services in conjunction with google maps API because it is way more cost effective.

I use google maps sdk on mobile because generally the data is much better quality for POI than Apple Maps, but doing geocoding is a lot more expensive so that’s where I use TomTom. Seems to work fine for me so far.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#299

Post by seanw444 » Wed, Nov 02, 2022, 2:52 PM UTC

drtz wrote: post #236

Aeolun wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google maps is fantastic. It beats literally everything else I can think of. But that’s scary. I want a competitor that offers at least roughly similar quality, but Google is so far ahead that it’s no contest.

Google Maps has been a really garbage experience for me lately, so much so that I've been actively looking for alternatives. Sadly, there aren't many. Some of problems I've had with Google Maps recently: - Routing gives me weird bypasses that aren't necessary and often actually add time to the trip. I've started to not trust the routing. - The UX when searching for places is extremely difficult to navigate, especiall…

OsmAnd+ is my go-to maps app as well lately. It's fantastic. The only problem I have with it is the rendering for the actual map is super unoptimized, and leads to it having a very low refresh rate. Which, for someone who got a phone with 120 Hz as soon as I possibly could because the smoothness matters so much to me, it's a tad frustrating. Especially when I'm trying to scroll around the map manually. When I leave it in navigation mode while driving, the refresh rate doesn't really matter.

According to the GitHub Issues/Dicussions, this isn't an issue with the iOS implementation. Just the Android one. Hopefully something they can fix.

Re: TomTom’s new mapping platform and ecosystem

#300

Post by vel0city » Wed, Nov 02, 2022, 2:56 PM UTC

shukantpal wrote: post #130

izacus wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also important how they're doing this. GMaps in my car constantly fails to show anything useful (or even start navigation) because there's no signal in my underground garage. Such a simple thing and yet TomTom can do it and Google can't.

You can download maps offline in Google Maps

I've had some pretty poor experiences with offline maps on Google Maps. There have been a few times where I've made a point to download the maps for an area a couple of days ahead of time because I knew service would be spotty. I would then drive out to the areas with spotty connectivity, and more often than not Google Maps would refuse to generate a route for a route definitely within the confines of the selected offline map. I'd have to drive back a bit by memory to find reception and then try to generate the route again. This would even happen if I was on a route, cancelled it for some reason, and then attempted to restart the exact same route while along the route it was just on.

Google Maps offline has been extremely unreliable for me and mostly unreliable when I had the greatest need for it. This was true years ago and this was true less than a month ago.

If I'm going to someplace with spotty connectivity, I make sure to put in all the main addresses and locations on my car's navigation system ahead of time. The maps might be dated but at least it'll generate a route somewhat towards the destination, even if I might need to take a detour along the way.