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TOMTOM MAPSHARE   mapshare image
 
     
  Navigation devices are only ever as good as their maps, and we live in a world where road networks routinely change some 10-15% every year, and by as much as 40% in high-growth areas. Until now, digital maps have been unable to keep pace with that rate of change.

TomTom therefore made the strategic decision to tackle the task of mapping today’s ever-changing road networks by developing a proprietary map improvement technology: TomTom Map Share.

With Map Share it is possible for the first time to instantly correct map errors directly on your PND, and for Map Share improvements to then be shared with and used by the whole Map Share community. There are currently over 15 million drivers with TomTom devices, the world’s largest satellite navigation community. This means our users can now benefit from the local road knowledge of millions of fellow motorists across the globe.

With so much of the road network changing every year, the volume of improvements needed to keep a map up-to-date increases significantly over time. At a certain point, that volume reaches a level whereby it becomes technically unfeasible to process, verify and distribute the changes to customers. However, TomTom’s strategy is to deliver the very best maps at the lowest possible prices and we therefore ensure that customers receive at least 12 months of Map Share updates after purchasing a new device or map. After this, they can continue to make improvements to their own maps, but will no longer receive map improvements from other users.

Buying the latest TomTom map is never a problem, as we release new map versions on a daily basis. On top of this, new devices come with TomTom’s Latest Map Guarantee: A commitment that we will provide the customer with the latest map pre-installed on their new device and that, should a newer map become available within 30 days of the date on which they start using their device, they can download that latest version for free.