Speaking Sensis

When I think about the authenticity of maps, I remember being a kid and creating my own treasure maps, pouring coffee over them and then getting Mum to burn the edges so they had that “real” buried-for-hundreds-of-years look.  

While the team at Whereis® don’t rely on coffee (well not in that sense anyway) and we certainly don’t get mum to burn the edges of our maps, we are committed to making sure their authentic and we drive thousands of kilometres across the country each year to keep them that way.

On our travels we record everything a driver might see in the city, regional centre or country town, such as the numbers of lanes, speed limits, turn restrictions, driveway entrances to service stations and road gradient.

As Australia is made up of more than 1,000,000kms of roads and highways with an ever increasing population, new roads, developments and suburbs popping up at a rapid rate, the process of capturing, interpreting, cross-checking and integrating data for Whereis® maps never stops.  

It’s a pretty common misconception that Australian roads don’t change that much and when people ask us about this, they are often surprised to learn that each new release of Whereis® mapping software actually captures between 10,000km and 15,000km of new roads and re-verifies 235,000km per year through continuous research.

In addition to this, our latest Whereis® map, Version 16, also comes with more than 610,000 points-of-interest, customised alerts like speed and school zones, more than 237,000km of roads with addresses, thousands of up to date information from sign posts, extended lane guidance, rail crossing alerts and loads more.

The other common myth is that in-car GPS systems update themselves automatically.  As convenient as that might be, today’s in-car GPS systems, just like our childhood treasure maps, don’t update themselves and the map software has to be manually updated. Thankfully, it’s very easy to do. 

All you need to do is keep the engine running while you pop the data DVD in your GPS device and let the new map data update the system.

So next time you getting your car serviced, either ask that your mapping data be updated or simply order your new software online and do it yourself at www.whereismaps.com

Who knows perhaps with accurate and authentic map data from Whereis® maybe you’ll find that elusive hidden treasure after all…