N. America 3D maps in the Future

[Matilda]

Being a GPS nut, a friend of mine pointed it out to me that Tele Atlas was showcasing it's 3D maps for North America at CES.

One of many articles:
http://www.lbszone.com/index.p...=view&id=2773&Itemid=2

I definitely think the 3D feature will be pretty neat in the future and an added bonus for gps users.

 

[TimeKeeper]

I have the chance play w/ iPaq 310 GPS for couple days. ( needless to say, not long enough to conclude anything )

I found that 3D map can be very helpful if there are multi-deck road system, only if GPS signal can determine the Altitude efficiently.

Ipaq 310 has hard time determine either I am on the Viaduct, Seatte WA or under it.
3D landmark building does help a "little" when navigating in the City. But, I tends to staring at the screen way too often, instead listen to the prompt. ( almost no Auto GPS can track you at the spot in the city, some GPS tracking can be more than 30 yard behind the acutal position at your moving speed only around 35mph )

I think what we really need will be great TTS and TRUE VTT (voice to text)

TomTom's VR only limited to actual address known. That mean, you must know exact city/street and number of your designation. Missing either one of the info will result no routing.

Magellan's VR on the other hand only recognize around 20+ command. That is "nearest coffee" "nearest gas" "nearest AT" so it does NOT recognize even respond to wherever you really want to go.

I haven't test Garmin's 8xx series, I hope they can have true VTT.
So I can simply said,.... " Garmin, go to Bestbuy " or "Garmin, go to xxxxx".

 

[Matilda]

Originally posted by: TimeKeeper
I have the chance play w/ iPaq 310 GPS for couple days. ( needless to say, not long enough to conclude anything )

I found that 3D map can be very helpful if there are multi-deck road system, only if GPS signal can determine the Altitude efficiently.

Ipaq 310 has hard time determine either I am on the Viaduct, Seatte WA or under it.
3D landmark building does help a "little" when navigating in the City. But, I tends to staring at the screen way too often, instead listen to the prompt. ( almost no Auto GPS can track you at the spot in the city, some GPS tracking can be more than 30 yard behind the acutal position at your moving speed only around 35mph )

So are you saying you don't think 3D maps will benefit the user in larger cities? I think it will definitely add to the gps experience. It may not necessarily make it easier to get from point A to point B, but it will give the user more information as to where landmarks are in relation to his/her position, etc. More information is usually a good thing, IMO. The t2s and V2t speak to a different issue than the usefulness of the maps.

 

[TimeKeeper]

Originally posted by: Matilda

So are you saying you don't think 3D maps will benefit the user in larger cities? I think it will definitely add to the gps experience. It may not necessarily make it easier to get from point A to point B, but it will give the user more information as to where landmarks are in relation to his/her position, etc. More information is usually a good thing, IMO. The t2s and V2t speak to a different issue than the usefulness of the maps.

I did said, it does help if there are multi-deck road system, such as Tokyo, Taipei, NYC. (only if GPS accuracy can be improved)

Let's take any major city for example, there usually no significant difference between buildings style other than the Stores you can recognize on the corner in the city.

What I meant is, driver usually already having hard time watching incoming traffice, sudden stop, construction and pedestrians, accurate/ clear TTS is actually more important than 3D maps. (3D map does NOT going to show you which store is on the corner or what style of windows each building uses )

I think 3D map help significantly only during the map browsing mode, or pre=route navigation.

 

[DivideBYZero]

I think the HUD chain method of GPS route mapping is the future. Having your route laid out on your real view is WIN.