Comparison: Route 66 GPS Maps and others

Before making a comparison between Route 66 GPS maps and other maps, let’s first make sure we know these terms.

ROUTE 66 Geographic Information Systems B.V. is a privately held company headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. ROUTE 66 specializes in navigation soft- and hardware products, and has distribution partners throughout Europe and U.S.

TomTom, a Netherlands-based maker of GPS and automotive navigation systems, is a digital mapping and routing company that focuses on car navigation and has now become one of world’s leading navigation solutions providers.

Destinator is a GPS navigation system, currently own by Intrinsyc, running on Windows Embedded CE and some mobile phone operating systems. It has a standard set of features, including turn-by-turn navigation with voice guidance, text-to-speech, pedestrian mode navigation, 2D and 3D views, local search of points of interest, integration with phone applications such as dialer and SMS, support of real-time traffic routing, speed cameras travel guide, and the ability to integrate with SNS and other LBS offerings.

PSMA , short for Power Sources Manufacturers Association, is a not-for-profit multinational power electronics association, incorporated in the state of California.

Sensis Corporation is a global provider of air defense, air traffic control, airline and airport operations management, and data integration and distribution. The company serves a global client base and is actively involved in industry organizations and working groups worldwide, helping to address critical issues and develop innovative, real-world solutions.

Compared with TomTom map, Route 66 map is slower in updating, and it is not as convenient to use as TomTom, e.g. Bluetooth function has to be started manually. But it is more excellent in some other aspects:

1.    Detailed street information.

One user in Australia find that Route 66 maps offer much more detailed street information than that of TomTom and Destinator. In his neighborhood, he says, those small streets like Lennon Street in Parkville and Caprice Avenue in Port Melbourne can be found on Route 66 maps, but not on the other two maps. Although Route 66 has to make further efforts in offering much more detailed information in suburban areas, it is so far users’ first choice for detailed street information.

2.    User-friendly address entry.

Users don’t have to enter the full name of a certain street. Instead, they just need to enter the first few letters of the street name, and Route 66 would automatically give them a list of street names to choose from. For example, if one wants to find “251 Salmon Street?Port Melbourne”, entering the main information “Sal 251 Melb” would just do.

3.    Effective route planning and route management.

Route 66 proves itself to be a match for TomTom in this respect.

4.    Fast route re-calculation.

Route 66 map system would get users re-calculate their route when they are no more than 10m off their original route.

5.    Convenient phone numbers offered.

When one hits on a certain POI (points-of-interest), Route 66 map would show the company’s phone number. TomTom map does not have this function.

In summary

Route 66, taking advantage of the map sources from PSMA, offers the most detailed map information; TomTom offers wonderful route planning, but the map, drawing on Sensis sources, is not detailed enough; Destinator is detailed enough but is rather poor at route planning.

When choosing a GPS system, we should pay special attention to these three points: detailed map information, route planning quality and search database. Different from other qualities such as convenience to use and multiple functions, these three points are beyond users to make any improvement. Therefore, Route 66 might be an comparatively ideal navigation software.

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