GPS maps don’t always reflect changes in rapidly growing cities. Navman’s new solution is to offer the option of monthly map updates — and judging by the scale of changes involved, that might not be a bad idea.
Between the 2012 and 2013 version of its Australian maps, Navman recorded 42,000 kilometres of new roads, 7500 street name changes, 10,000 turn restrictions, 1800 new one-way streets and 1800 new road direction signs. That’s a stack of changes. (Globally, Navman’s mapping partner HERE makes 81 million edits to maps every month.)
Features tracked will include points of interest, new developments, and safety alerts for school zones and traffic cameras. Australia and New Zealand are the first countries to get the option, which sends an email to owners to tell them to connect their device and update it. (The updates now work in Macs and Windows machines.)
The Rapid Map Refresh updates will be free with the MY450LMT model, and available as an optional extra with other models for a one-off fee of $149. Navman already offers free lifetime maps, but those remain quarterly updates on other models. (In practice, that fee is high enough that I suspect new buyers would go for the top-end model anyway.)
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