NavTech Expands Map Database Coverage
13 October 1998
NavTech Expands Map Database Coverage of Europe and North America; Company to Add Significant New Countries
ROSEMONT, Ill.--Oct. 12, 1998--Navigation Technologies (NavTech), the leading supplier of map databases used by in-vehicle navigation products, announced today that it plans major database coverage builds in both Europe and North America in 1999. NavTech issued upcoming coverage plans at the 5th Annual World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems in Seoul, South Korea.
NavTech creates and sells the world's most widely-used navigation database, already used in virtually every vehicle navigation system in North America and the majority of those on the road in Europe. Renowned for the detail and completeness needed for true route guidance, the NavTech database provides 150 navigation attributes for each street segment, addresses, and points of interest in 42 categories such as restaurants, hotels, tourist attractions, etc.
European Coverage
In Europe, NavTech's 1999 plan calls for dramatic data builds in Spain, Sweden, and Denmark and deepened coverage across other well-established areas. In aggregate, the NavTech Europe database will provide detailed coverage of areas in which 230 million people reside. NavTech will continue to extend and add detail in Germany, Benelux, Great Britain, France, Austria, and Switzerland.
"We recognize that sufficient coverage is a major catalyst for the growth of the market and carefully study demographics in this regard," said Denis Cohen, president of NavTech Europe. "During 1998, we introduced products that reflect this sensibility such as our Central Europe and Mediterranean Coast CDs. Real world driving patterns showed that there was sufficient cross-border traffic in these areas to warrant multi-country product offerings. Central Europe encompasses southern Germany, northern Italy, Austria and Switzerland while Mediterranean covers coastal Italy, France, and Eastern Spain."
North American Coverage
NavTech expects to add coverage of nearly 10 million consumers to its North American database. Included in the North American builds are the cities of Montreal, Canada; Milwaukee, WI; and, Buffalo, NY. NavTech's navigable databases extend detailed coverage to more than 140 million consumers in North America (more than 50% of the population).
"The building of the NAVTECH database is an ongoing process," said Mike Walsh, president of NavTech North America. "We estimate that our team of full-time cartographers drive more than 1 million kilometers every year to update and test the quality of our database against real world demands."
About Navigation Technologies
NavTech is a global company recognized as the premier supplier of superior quality, continuously updated route guidance map databases for both North America and Europe. The NAVTECH database contains an extensive and precise digital representation of the road network that provides the depth, accuracy and coverage needed to enable turn-by-turn, door-to-door route guidance. Applications using the NAVTECH database include in-vehicle navigation products, fleet management systems, personal navigation products, web sites and online services, kiosk-based directions, advanced traffic and traveler information systems and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
NavTech is headquartered in Rosemont, Ill., with additional offices in Sunnyvale, Calif., and Best, The Netherlands. In addition, NavTech has a customer support center in Yokohama, Japan and more than 70 field offices and 950 employees worldwide.
Note to editors: For additional information on NavTech, please visit the NavTech Web site at http://www.navtech.com.
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