TomTom is one of the key providers of local data to Apple for its forthcoming maps product. I had a chance during my vacation to use a TomTom GPS device in a Hertz rental car in Ireland. I had never used one before.
Beyond the clunky and awkward UI, the device had surprising difficulty locating our initial hotel — as in finding it in the database. This was true despite the fact that it is a major hotel and long established in the area we were staying. After several attempts including typing in the address I got the device to locate the hotel.
The TomTom PND then proceeded to take us on a very convoluted and even dangerous route (because of the width of the roads). It ultimately got us lost, not recognizing one-way streets and forcing us, after driving around, to eventually call the hotel for directions. The Hertz system, ironically, is called “never lost.”
I had an Android Galaxy Nexus phone with me and I bought a local SIM card. Thereafter for the rest of the trip I used Google Navigation, which performed very well — surprisingly well in fact (“enter roundabout, take the second exit”).
While I hesitate to draw too many conclusions from my isolated experience, it caused me to reflect on the massive local infrastructure that Google has built for its maps and navigation product, and to suspect that Apple’s new maps may fall short when it launches.
As an iPhone owner I hope that’s not the case. I also hope that Google finally releases a version of Navigation as an app for the iPhone.
July 25th, 2012 at 9:47 am
Very surprised by your results Greg. Given my experiences in using Google maps over the years I was expecting Tom Tom to kick its butt.
From a local advertising perspective, was your Galaxy Nexus phone continually pushing local business ads to you as you were driving along? Could you see this happening into the future? Or would it have just made your drive even more frustrating and dangerous?
btw, any hints as to which country this experiment took place in?
July 25th, 2012 at 3:04 pm
Ireland was the country. No ads pushed at this point. Perhaps the TomTom data are sound and it’s the UI/UX that are bad but it was “not pretty” as they say.
July 25th, 2012 at 4:23 pm
This is awesome field research. It only takes ONE bad experience to turn a user off to a maps App. Remember Mapquest? Yes, I think that was the name of it. Certainly Apple would not go live with a sub-par maps user experience, right?
July 26th, 2012 at 3:50 pm
Recently I was in San Deign for a family wedding and rented a car from Hertz that came with their GPS unit. It worked okay but it is down right onerous to enter locations and it generally took us on crazy routes. I quit using it and started using Google Navigation. The best part is being able to simply say “navigate to downtown Carlsbad” or some similar destination. It is amazing at getting it right and generally takes you on a much more direct route. I love the prompts that you get ahead of time. Much different then the Hertz unit telling me after it is already too late.
July 26th, 2012 at 7:42 pm
I totally agree; that was my exact experience.
September 19th, 2012 at 3:29 am
[...] had my own bad experience with a TomTom powered GPS device this summer and it caused me to wonder how competitive Apple maps [...]