24 Jan 2009

Rubbish TomTom maps

Among the gadgets I have, one of the most useful is undoubtedly the TomTom One sat nav. However, both the maps I have were way outdated. I realised the need for updating my map after driving in London a couple of time. The TomTom would tell me to drive into one way streets, lead me into dead end roads and tell me I was speeding when I was only doing 45mph on 50 mph roads.

So I finally downloaded the latest version of the Map of Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland v_8.15 for £29.95. Was quite happy until I discovered that a number of post codes were missing. I normally use post codes to get to a destination and on 3 separate occasions, including our recent shopping trip to Stoke-on-Trent, the post codes were missing from the map.

This really pisses me off. Updated maps are supposed to have more information, not remove them. Day before yesterday, it happened again. We had to go to Birmingham to collect some stuff but the TomTom didn't recognise the post code of the location. Fortunately, I was able to find it on my old Europe map after switching maps.

That's totally rubbish.

11 comments:

D said...

ok, so moral of story: hi-tech gadgets are a scam? LOL!!!

Anonymous said...

I've heard several stories of this...and now I'm just waiting for the first story of someone suing Garmin or TomTom for driving off a road. Honestly, if someone can sue McDonald's for dumping coffee on themselves, this will undoubtedly happend (if it hasn't already).

Anonymous said...

I've heard of people taking 3 hour drives for routes that should be about 30 minutes away

Anonymous said...

Never get a tom tom. I actually just have a friend named Tom who used to be a driver for a local company. He knows all the roads around our town and knows all the shortcuts. If I ever need to find something I call the real Tom. It is great!

Anonymous said...

I have a Iphone so I trust Google the only problem with Google maps is no voice directions.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand why in some places doesn't work, why the technology does NOT improve?

Anonymous said...

My parents have had frustrating situations because of their TomTom too. It took them down a dirt road, when it was supposed to be avoiding dirt roads, because they were towing their 32 ft camper and the camper bottomed out. They had to call a tow truck to get it unstuck, I think they were a bit embarrassed! Isn't technology wonderful!

Anonymous said...

That's really ridiculous have you complain to the producer company.

Dilip Mutum said...

Thanks for the comments guys.

D: I won't call it a scam but they do need to do something about it.

Ruri: I did but no answer from them so far.

Anonymous said...

Are maps of Asia (specifically Japan) and Australia available for a Tom Tom One? I’m planning to buy one here in the States and expect to be living in Japan for a while next year. All I can find out is that maps of Europe are available but the Tom Tom map site seems to be down for maintenance.

Dilip Mutum said...

casa asturias: Hi! Taiwan is the only Asian country listed on the TomTom site. However, there might be other third parties offering maps of specific countries.