Navigation devices are
everywhere and just keep getting better and better thanks to the 3D maps provided by the likes of Tele Atlas (
owned by TomTom) and NAVTEQ (owned by Nokia). Now Tele Atlas is announcing its photorealistic "Advanced City Models" destined for in-car and portable navigation systems and mobile devices. In June, Tele Atlas will release 40 maps based on BLOM arial imagery for cities across Europe -- hundreds more cities, including those in North America and Asia, will be available in 2010. Remember, Google already has
laid ink to paper to give it rights to Tele Atlas maps for use in Google's mobile, desktop, and on-line offerings. And with Tele Atlas maps loaded on PSPs and navigators from Pioneer, Mio, and of course TomTom, just think of this as a hint of what's to come.
posted May 20th 2009 6:34AM
So Google Mobile can use this?! Great... however only a few selected chips and processors will be able to run it flawlessly.
fire up Google Earth and fly to Munich, Germany, with 3D buildings switched on.
I said years ago that eventually we'd be able to play Gran Tourismo using our route to work - and this takes it a step nearer.
I said this before I started working from home so I may be freaked out in a big brother sense if they can accurately render the insides of my house.
This whole SIMULATOR HELPS TERRORISTS shit is such bollocks and so annoying to the 99.999% of the population who aren't planning an attack.
Ever hear of self fulfilling prophecy, eh?
Engadget is known to repeat silly popular arguments to drive the point home how silly they are.
And they assume us internet people all understand that.
I think we should just stop advancing for terrorists. Close down the schools, libraries, etc. Who is with me here?
/sarcasm
@Wwhat, Naaailed it.
Yeah totally true about the ironic use of headlines but when you see it on the news on TV is is actually infuriating. My parents watch it as if it's the TRUTH being told to them and I actually have them turn it over or leave the room. If one of them was to read this article they probably would not see the funny and actaully take it seriously as would most people who are not really in-the-loop so it is kinda shit-stirring in that respect.
That's because our governments and the media they control are continually trying to perpetuate a fear for some intangible force in order to keep you under their heel whilst using their 'anti-terror efforts' to subdue the population's civil rights and carry out their own selfish and nefarious desires.
There is no terrorist threat, unless you consider the American/UK government a terrorist group..
@Chris
Pointing out your own obvious sarcasm automatically makes the post less funny.
+1/2
Can you say "link-baiting'?
Pretty neat, it's the kind of thing you see in scifi movies but in reality so very seldomly pans out, glad to see it can on rare occasions be done right.
Terrorism this, Terrorism that. Tired of goverments and various media organizations using the terrorism card for every little thing in order to justify their wrong doing behind closed doors.
That's one of the two things i find funny about Americans: how they make a big deal out of "terrorism". The other is creationism.
Sometimes they combine the two and create terrorism :)
Hey, some of us are rational.
I have had very bad experiences with GPS systems.... are they still as useless in build-up areas?
I'm not sure what you're refering to - I've relied on GPS navigation systems for the past five years (two cars, smartphone) and have never had a single problem in the city... What problems are you talking about ?
delayed responses. I never had a good experience with GPS. Anyway, I drive mostly by doing pre-planning and some driving instincts and common sense. That never fails me.
What this needs is some third-party development, like the Google Maps Flight Simulator, but for massively-multiplayer FPS deathmatches on a global scale...
Awesome!
Fun fact:
Tele Atlas never made any profit before being bought by TomTom.
What do you know?
That IS a fun fact.
Just curious, which city is that first picture of?
That's Geneva, Switzerland.
So I will finally be able to play MMO games in my favorite cities without having to visit them? Great!
Would be nice to be able to "walk around" the cities I don't have the money to visit now.
Nice, I can see my apartment there :-)
that must be the beautiful city Genève.
Terrorism is a term invented by the US government to scare US citizens (aka sheeple) shitless...
I couldn't have resisted to comment on the last word in the caption.
I can see this falling down in implementation - I could see it working maybe in built-in sat-navs, where you've probably got some space for grunt, but for my 2cm thick tomtom to draw these live on the birds-eye view - can't see that happening. Hows about we just work on the gps sensitivity in built up areas so the lil' blue triangle doesn't jump 90deg to the next road at an intersection huh?
This is amazing, but not just for us, for future generations too.
Imagine how important this kind of thing will be for future historians, all these masses of data that are being compiled by companies like this and like Google. Imagine in 50 years time being able to see what your town or city was like as it is now.
This is nothing new 3D modeling has been around for a while for both NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas. And... way to use Terrorism in the title.. Lame.
When can we see this implemented as the next Sim City?
Assuming the whole "terrorism" headline was just dropped in there to prompt readership and comments. This is a really nice feature. Having done some volunteer planning work for my community it really is nice to be able to use google earth to quickly get maps, terrain and satellite views on people's desktops and then show them what options there are. What has been lacking has been the urban landscape with just a few select buildings available mostly in big city centers and without any photo realism. Hopefully, the information will be able to be archived by the public so that we can see how things change over time.
wow, it´s all VR 1993 again!!!
no, really, totally unimpressive animation there...
Yeah, there's no such thing as terrorism! The WTCenters blew up out of structural infirmities, those planes that hit it (BOTH buildings!) were merely trying to have a good time and accidentally ran into them! And there was no Holocaust either!
Arial imagery? Are the buildings rendered in ASCII?
Bah, I'm holding out till they have Helvetica.
I think Tele Atlas should up the ante and get into the X-Prize for "Google mapping" the moon.
Great... I can't even see my city on google maps (blurry), and now they started doing cities in 3D...
just curious.....will this still work when the GPS system stopped working as one of the earlier post that i saw from this web......
Why don't they just use existing satellite photos. Everything is already there - for top view, at least.
One step closer to the Holodeck!
Am I the only one that has seen Virtual Earth 3D? It's been doing this stuff for years already...
Nope but it's made by Microsoft so nobody who reads Engadget would acknowledge it exists.
Until apple bring this out it will go well under Engadgets radar...
Virtual Earth's 3D citys are even better than Google earths even though it's only a browser plug-in.
The good thing about this though is it looks really scalable.
Climb down in the terrorist threat, since EVERYTHING can be a terrorist aid to plan an attack. How about: Kill off GPS, aerial photography, photography in general, outlaw movie cameras, stop any flights with still/video camera - it is insane how far these statements go if you follow them out to their bizarre conclusion.
when is it NICO get it opportunity to be vacationing in this newfoundland?
tomo
Nice, I can see my apartment there :-)
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