I've just started using my garmin zumo the last 3 days and came on some interesting map quirkiness. The map software was updated to 2009 specs in June 2008... (yes, it sat on the shelf for a while) kind of make you wonder what you actually get in a map update.
Three observations: 1)Ronald Reagan Blvd. extension was displayed as text at the top of the display but motorcycle icon was traveling off road. No ronald Reagan Blvd on the map.
2) Yesterday, we were riding in the hill country and were following a Farm road that was dead on until we came to a divergance where the motorcycle icon was riding off to the left of the road. Again, off in a field. The Garmin was telling me to proceed 200 yards to the right to get back on the road! After a time the the motorcycle icon rejoined the road on the map. The only thing I could see was that the road was improved with a shoulder and when we merged back onto the original road, it didn't have a shoulder. This would indicate that sometime back, the county moved the road from it's original track. Garmin hasn't updated that in its mapping program.
3) When i was coming home from a friends house, I decided to let the garmin direct me. On the way to the friends house everything was perfect, but on the way home, it was telling me about an exit that was moved farther south probably 5 years ago. It still was telling me that I had 1.9 miles to go when I reached the exit. it was not updated to show the moved exit location.
4) My wife and I started looking at the fast food listings on the Garmin and noticed that they were showing a Long John silvers restaraunt where a Churches chicken restaurant has existed for at least 3 years.
What this all boils down to is - How accurate are Garmin GPS's? On three different days, I came across 3 different anomolies. How many years out of date are the maps used? When you buy a 2009 update, what year version of reality are you actually getting? 2004?
Three observations: 1)Ronald Reagan Blvd. extension was displayed as text at the top of the display but motorcycle icon was traveling off road. No ronald Reagan Blvd on the map.
2) Yesterday, we were riding in the hill country and were following a Farm road that was dead on until we came to a divergance where the motorcycle icon was riding off to the left of the road. Again, off in a field. The Garmin was telling me to proceed 200 yards to the right to get back on the road! After a time the the motorcycle icon rejoined the road on the map. The only thing I could see was that the road was improved with a shoulder and when we merged back onto the original road, it didn't have a shoulder. This would indicate that sometime back, the county moved the road from it's original track. Garmin hasn't updated that in its mapping program.
3) When i was coming home from a friends house, I decided to let the garmin direct me. On the way to the friends house everything was perfect, but on the way home, it was telling me about an exit that was moved farther south probably 5 years ago. It still was telling me that I had 1.9 miles to go when I reached the exit. it was not updated to show the moved exit location.
4) My wife and I started looking at the fast food listings on the Garmin and noticed that they were showing a Long John silvers restaraunt where a Churches chicken restaurant has existed for at least 3 years.
What this all boils down to is - How accurate are Garmin GPS's? On three different days, I came across 3 different anomolies. How many years out of date are the maps used? When you buy a 2009 update, what year version of reality are you actually getting? 2004?