Garmin has been talking about its landmark-based navigation Real Directions ("Turn right at the McDonalds") for some time. The NY Times reveals some of the challenges the company and partner Nokia (NAVTEQ) found in building the solution, now available for 52 U.S. cities:
In test drives, a team of employees from Garmin and from the Navteq mapping division of Nokia discovered that the direction of travel changed what needed to be said — a landmark visible when approaching from the north might be hidden when driving from the south. Tests also found that drivers became puzzled if they were told to turn right when the landmark was on the left.
What that meant, from a practical sense: collecting far more landmarks that exptected. And, I'll offer, keeping all those landmark descriptions up to date. If the McDonald's becomes a Wendy's, that'll need updating.
- NY Times
The U.S. Forest Service put out a bid last week for resellers to enhance and re-sell its digital mapping products including maps, atlases and apps. While paper maps sell some 250,000 copies per year, sales of digital products from the Service's website have been meager. That's why the plan is to engage a reseller who can sell existing products and provide value-added versions. The only government requirement regading pricing is that the Service at least break even on each products. The plan is to offer 18 forest maps and six atlases in the coming years.