New features make destination selection and arrival even more precise
Athens, Greece — June 22, 2010 — NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world has further refined its navigable map of Greece with additional detailed addressing information plus new attributes which support even more efficient navigation.
NAVTEQ has teams based in both Athens and Thessaloniki, that are not only responsible for keeping the map up-to-date but also for adding new detail and advanced features which help drivers and pedestrians get smoothly from A to B. Because the road network is constantly changing, maintaining a map database is a never ending task.
Destination selection has been improved with the addition of precise addressing for the vast majority of the Greek population – which means navigation systems can now route drivers directly from door to door. Again important for choosing destinations, the extensive range of Points of Interest (POI) is now approaching 100,000 with categories such as railway stations, hotels, restaurants and shopping and leisure centres. The MERIAN scout guide for Greece is also available offering reviews of local facilities and other useful travel information.
To make it easier to navigate complex road layouts, NAVTEQ now offers country specific 2D images of junctions and road signs, which provide visual cues to help prepare the driver to negotiate the junction ahead or confirm the correct driving direction. Designed to take up minimal storage space, they can therefore be used in a broad range of navigation systems.
Other new offerings include NAVTEQ Transport™ which provides the transportation and logistics industries with accurate truck-specific attributes to support more efficient routing for large vehicles on the main road network. The data includes legal, height, width, weight, hazardous materials and time or date restrictions.
Perfectly complementing NAVTEQ Transport is an additional set of innovative Points of Interest designed for the freight and transport industry and focusing on filling stations, truck stops and related information. It is based on data from DKV Euro Service, Europe’s leading, specialist provider of fuel cards, breakdown support and other services for lorries. The content includes, for example, information on accessibility by lorries; availability of HGV pumps and power supply; type of fuels sold (truck diesel, biodiesel mix, vegetable oil, additives such as AdBlue etc); car or truck wash facilities; payment options; and even whether or not there are showers on site.
A pioneering development in voice capabilities in navigation, NAVTEQ Voice™ data has now been added to the map of Greece. It enables systems to speak guidance and pronounce street names when giving directions through speech synthesis; for example “Panepistimiou Street,” where the old campus of the University of Athens, the National Library, and the Athens Academy are located. In addition, it also supports Automatic Speech Recognition – meaning drivers and pedestrians can give verbal instructions to their navigation systems.
“These new refinements on the Greek map underline NAVTEQ’s commitment to South Eastern Europe and the Balkans,” commented Frank Pauli, vice president EMEA map & content products. “In addition to Greece, we already have full coverage of 10 additional countries, which demonstrates NAVTEQ’s strategy of comprehensive coverage. The growing tourism market in Greece and the surrounding countries put this region high on NAVTEQ’s list of priorities. We look forward to further expansion in coverage and advanced content in this area.”
About NAVTEQ
NAVTEQ is the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data (digital location content) enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world. NAVTEQ supplies comprehensive digital location content to power automotive navigation systems, portable and wireless devices, Internet-based mapping applications and government and business solutions. The Chicago-based company was founded in 1985 and has more than 4700 employees located in 204 offices in 46 countries.
