Article by Dave Burrows

There have been lots of messages on the forums and in personal emails to me regarding TomTom Navigator where people have found errors in the maps.  TomTom have been providing fixes via TeleAtlas for the maps since TomTom was released, but there are still quite a number of outstanding map errors that people are noticing.  TomTom have said theyare investigating all of these matters that are reported to their support department and are fixing these with map updates as soon as possible!  We thought it might be better to collate the problems and show comparison screenshots so it also gives TomTom more information to go on, as it is always easier to see the problem if you can see it rather than having it described to you.

Some of the problems range from place ABC isn't listed, or you can't route to XYZ,

We've asked our users to put together a comprehensive list of impurities which we are now publishing both here to existing TomTom users and also to TomTom themselves in the hope that these problems will be fixed and offered as a FREE no quibble upgrade to all of TomTom's customers that ordered direct from their mail-order store without having to send their CD's in as proof of purchase as a number of CD's, mine included have appeared to have been lost somewhere between leaving the post box and reaching TomTom.  It may still be a requirement for people who have purchased at another store to send their CD's in or to at least provide proof of purchase.

Please note when reading this, this article is a work in progress and will be updated when either more map problems are found, or when fixes become available.  We should also state, that most of the problems found here are minor, if you were to compare these to a complete map of a country, but some of these problems do cause problems allowing you to route to different locations which does make some of the areas of maps unusable.

If you have found any that are not listed here, please report them in the comments link which can also be found at the end of this article and we will not only add them to this list and notify TomTom, but we will also change the status of these entries when a fix has been made available.

Problem #1 - Routing across the Isle of Wight, England

Reported by Annaka

FIXED 21st September 2002 - http://www.tt1.nl/customers/Isle_of_Wight.zip

It is impossible to plan a route across the Isle of Wight as there is a bug in the Mapping data which lists most of the roads on the Isle of Wight as private roads which by default TomTom Navigator will not plan a journey over.

This results either in a route that has been planned, but part way through the route it tells you that you have reached your destination, or it can even take you round in circles as there is no physical way to get to the destination as TomTom Navigator sees it.

Isle of Wight

 Private Roadso n the IOW

Problem #2 - Powys, Wales, England

Reported by Chris

FIXED

Powys, Wales has been left off of TomTom Navigator altogether.

TomTom Navigator

Powys, Wales, England

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

Powys, Wales, England

Problem #3 - Land/Sea

Reported by Dave Burrows

There are inherent problems throughout TomTom Navigator where land and sea become one.  If you take a look at the image (below left) of the Isle of Wight, can you really say which is land and which is sea ?  It's very difficult to tell, and if you were approaching any coastal area or Island, you would have great difficulty finding which is which.  Compare this with the AutoRoute map (below right) and you'll see the difference.

TomTom Navigator

Isle of Wight

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

Isle of Wight

Another typical example is the map below, this is of North East Scotland and the Orkney Islands.  You'll notice it's very difficult on TomTom Navigator to tell exaclty where land and sea start and finish.

TomTom Navigator

Scotland / Orkney Islands

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

Scotland / Orkney Islands

Problem #4 - Unknown Places - Not in Database  (Dorchester, Dorset, England)

Reported by Duncan Hill

There is no way at all to plot a journey to Dorchester in the South West of England.  Dorchester is a quaint town that resides in Dorset

This becomes very irritating because when you cannot navigate to a well known town as Dorchester, how do you navigate ?  The only way is if you know where it is on the map and to tap and hold and say plot a route to here.  The Dorchester (South Oxfordshire) listed in TomTom Navigator isn't the Dorchester in Dorset.

TomTom Navigator

Dorchester, Dorset, England

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

Dorchester, Dorset, England

Problem #5 - Unknown Places - Not in Database (Wareham, Dorset, England)

Reported by Dave Burrows

There is no way at all to plot a journey to Wareham in the South West of England.  Wareham is a quaint town that resides in Dorset

This becomes very irritating because when you cannot navigate to a well known town as Dorchester, how do you navigate ?  The only way is if you know where it is on the map and to tap and hold and say plot a route to here.

TomTom Navigator

Wareham, Dorset, England

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

Wareham, Dorset, England

Problem #6 - Wrong Locations (Mawgan Porth, Cornwall, England)

Reported by Peter De-Voisey

There are a number of places that aren't being shown correctly on TomTom Navigator, in fact when you go to a location it throws you to another location around the map.  One such place is Mawgan Porth in Cornwall.  If you navigate to Mawgan Porth, London Apprentice in Navigator it throws you to the east coast of Cornwall.  Mawgan Porth is on the West Coast of Cornwall.   This is the same for most of the entries listed under Mawgan Porth in Navigator.

TomTom really do need to look at the Mawgan Porth entry in the database, and also the whole Cornwall database as there have been other sighted problems but none have been clarified across the Cornwall database which need to be fixed!

TomTom Navigator

London Apprentice, Mawgan Porth, Cornwall, England

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002, Mawgan Porth

TomTom Navigator

Esplanade, Mawgan Porth, Cornwall, England

Problem #7 - Unknown Places - Not in Database (Wells, Somerset, England)

Reported by Chris

Wells, is a small town in Somerset, not far from Weston-super-Mare (North Somerset)

TomTom Navigator

Wells, Somerset, England

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

Wells, Somerset, England

Problem #8 - Unknown Places - Not in Database (Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England)

Reported by Chris

Shepton Mallet, is a small town in Somerset, east of Frome, Somerset

TomTom Navigator

Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England

Problem #9 - Unknown Places - Not in Database (Glastonbury, Somerset, England)

Reported by Chris

Glastonbury, is a small town in Somerset, south east of Frome and west of Bridgwater, Somerset

TomTom Navigator

Glastonbury, Somerset, England

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

Glastonbury, Somerset, England

Problem #10 - Unknown Places - Not in Database (Street, Somerset, England)

Reported by Chris

Street, is a small town in Somerset, south of Glastonbury.

TomTom Navigator

Street, Somerset, England

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

Street, Somerset, England

Problem #11 - M25/M4 London England, wrong direction

Reported by Mark Berry

When travelling north bound on the M25 and you reach Juntion 15 which crosses with the M4 (West to East), if you want to take the M4 East bound, rather than take the correct route of exiting Junction 15, following the right hand underpass to take you onto the M4, TomTom Navigator decides when you reach the M4 to tell you to KEEP RIGHT and also to cross the 6-8 lanes of traffic driving through the central reservation rather than taking the safer legal route of taking the slip road.  This can be very dangerous, and we urge anyone travelling the M25 to not take Navigator's instructions when you approach the M4 turn off.

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

M25/M4 Junction, Near London, England

Problem #12 - A5/A4080 Wales, bridges are out

Reported by Gadjet

When crossing the river between Penrhos-garnedd, Wales to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll across the two bridges (lower bridge) A5 and the (upper bridge) A4080 (Menai bridge), TomTom Navigator shows the roads at ending at each end of the Irish Sea inlet, causing problems routing from mainland Wales to Anglesey.

TomTom Navigator

A5/A4080 Wales Brdiges

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

A5/A4080 Wales Brdiges

Problem #13 - Unknown Places - Not in Database (Bodmin, Cornwall, England)

Reported by Mark

Bodmin, is a small town in Cornwall, England

TomTom Navigator

Bodmin, Cornwall, England

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

Bodmin, Cornwall, England

Problem #14 - Unknown Places - Not in Database (Bampton, Devon, England)

Reported by Mark

Bampton, is a small town in Devon, England

TomTom Navigator

Bampton, Devon, England

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

Bampton, Devon, England

Problem #15 - Unknown Places - Not in Database (Cheddar, Somerset, England)

Reported by Mark

Cheddar, is a small town in Somerset, England

TomTom Navigator

Cheddar, Somerset, England

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

Cheddar, Somerset, England

Problem #16 - Unknown Places - Not in Database (Newquay, Cornwall, England)

Reported by Mark

Newquay, is a small town in Cornwall, England

TomTom Navigator

Newquay, Cornwall, England

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

Newquay, Cornwall, England

Problem #17 - Unknown Places - Not in Database (Dartmouth, Devon, England)

Reported by VlaD

Dartmouth in Devon is missing from the list. Most of the roads are there but you have to manually find Dartmouth first.

TomTom Navigator

Dartmouth, Devon, England

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

Dartmouth, Devon, England

Problem #18 - Routing drops you from an A road off motorway bridge onto motorway (M4 Junction 10, England)

Reported by VlaD

Rather than TomTom Navigator routing you to Junction 10 to join the motorway, it routes you up the A321, then east along the B3034 then North up Maidenhead Road and onto The Straight Mile, and then suggests you then drive north east off the motorway bridge onto the M4, which isn't possible.

TomTom Navigator

M4 Junction 10

Microsoft AutoRoute 2002

M4 Junction 10

Problem #19 - Unknown Places - Not in Database (Bideford, Devon, England)

Reported by steddyman

I've found large parts of North Devon to be missing from the maps including:
Bideford, Ilfracombe, Combe Martin, and many others

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