Updating Maps on the Spot and Sharing the Fixes
Out-of-date maps can throw a wrench into your driving plans, but TomTom's new Map Share software combines cartography with community to allow users to update maps on the go — and later share the results with others.
Context & Ripple Effects
TomTom's confirmed release of Map Share marks a turn in the mapping fight that opened back in November 2005, when challengers began eroding MapQuest's grip on directions and navigation moved from the desktop browser to dedicated devices. Until now, a personal navigation device was only as good as its last shipped map disc — corrections flowed one way, from the vendor down.
Map Share inverts that pipe: drivers patch wrong turns and missing streets on the device itself, then propagate those fixes to other users. The strategic weight sits in who owns the correction layer — the device maker that aggregates community edits gains a living dataset its rivals must buy or rebuild.
First-order effects
- TomTom owners stop waiting for scheduled map releases; a road closure or mislabeled street can be fixed at the wheel and shared, making the device's accuracy a function of its user base.
Second-order effects
- Rival navigation-device makers face pressure to match community editing or compete against a TomTom map that improves with every mile driven, and the commercial map-data suppliers feeding the industry suddenly have users auditing their product quality in public.
Third-order effects
- If community-corrected maps hold up, cartography shifts from a periodically licensed product to a continuously maintained service — a structural move that favors whichever platform accumulates the largest active editing base, and foreshadows the crowd-sourced map databases that follow.
The trend: Mapping is moving from centrally produced, periodically sold cartography toward community-maintained live datasets, with device platforms racing to own the correction layer.