Comparison of M&G and Navigator routes

[Bernd Welter]

Hello colleagues,

I've recently been asked why the routes of

• MAP&GUIDE
• Navigator

differ sometimes. As far as I know this could have several reasons such as

• different map providers (e.g. HERE on MAP&GUIDE versus TOMTOM on Navigator)
• different map versions (e.g. 2015 on MAP&GUIDE versus 2016 on Navigator)
• different routing profiles (e.g. customized on MAP&GUIDE)

Are there any further meta reasons for such deviations?

Best regards Bernd

[Michael.Hubschneider]

Yes, beneath the typical reasons, like maps, versions, profiles
the main reason is, the data is stored differently.

In Navigation we base on 5x3 road types, while there are 8x8 in xServer,
also the routing engine is optimized for mobile devices, when it comes to memory consumption and speed.
The navigation engine also excels in things like: efficient access to restricted areas,
avoiding uturns, or integrating real time traffic.

So although we aim to roughly calculate the same route, the result may differ.

If you would like to obtain the same route, there is a solution, called Guided Navigation.
Stops as well as some intermediate points you can't see, the Magnetic Via Points (MVP) are stored in a BCR-File,
that you might know from Map&guide so, the route is very likely to follow the given route trace,
independent of map providers or versions.

You can store these Guided BCR in map&guide or Smartour,
and create them easily in xServers with an additional function.
Recently we added in Map&Guide and Smartour the functionality to send them directly to the device,
informing the driver about a new route received.