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GPS MAPPING PROBLEMS OR INCORRECT ADDRESSES
A note about navigation system mapping problems: If you are having problems with information displayed by your car navigation system or handheld personal navigation device, such as location names, addresses, closed highway exits or other mapping data, it is likely that this is a mapping software problem vice a Global Positioning System (GPS) problem.
The GPS constellation of satellites does not provide any information whatsoever beyond the position, navigation and timing signals necessary for various applications and receiver types to determine location. Beyond that, it is the application software companies that build receiver capability to display maps, or to determine addresses.
Some mapping software companies produce updates only every few years so, even when buying a new vehicle with an installed navigation system, it is likely that your GPS's mapping software is already outdated by one or two years. If you do not purchase the updates when they are published, your device may be many more years out of date.
Interestingly, there are other assumptions made by these kinds of mapping applications. Perhaps you’ve found that your address does not quite line up with where your house or business is actually on the map. Consider that your address might be #60 on a street, so, lacking an actual verified position of your home or business, software algorithms assume that you would be located 6/10ths of the way up the road on the right hand side. That may not be true in that, say, perhaps a large farm or building takes up a full half of the length of a road and all other homes or businesses are actually confined to a small area down on the other end.
In any case, most businesses and homes are required to have their addresses clearly visible from the street either on the mail box and/or on the actual building. Ultimately, it is still necessary for drivers to look outside their vehicles when brought in to the vicinity of a destination by their navigation device.
TeleAtlas and NAVTEQ are the world's two big providers of mapping data. Generally, everyone else gets their mapping data from them. They both have report-a-mapping-problem links on their web sites where you can register a complaint with them.
If you wish to report an incorrect address, report or request a change to the address for a business or home, or perhaps add an address, you can submit your corrections to http://mapinsight.teleatlas.com/mapfeedback/index.php and http://mapreporter.navteq.com. These edits will likely be included in the next update publication of the company’s mapping data (be sure to report it in both places because they may not share). Additionally, some popular handheld navigation devices have built in an application to submit these kinds of reports and also provide a service to allow you to download frequent updates on-line.
If you determine that you are experiencing GPS issues relating to receiving the actual signals coming from the satellites, please click on this link to fill out a GPS outage report.
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U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center - NAVCEN MS 7310, 7323 Telegraph Road, Alexandria, VA 20598 - 7310 | (703) 313-5900 | Privacy Policy | Last Updated 01/15/2013
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