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However a map reaches a navigator or a car, the release itself starts in one place: the maker’s own servers. Everything that follows is transport. The chain below is the same for every maker covered on this site.
- Map dataBuilt by the maker itself or licensed from a supplier.
- The maker’s release serversWhere each finished release is published for each model.
- A program on a computerThe maker’s desktop program, joined to the navigator by a USB cable.
- The navigator’s own Wi-FiNewer navigators reach the servers by themselves.
- A card or USB drivePrepared on a computer by a carmaker’s program, then read by the car.
- A dealer’s equipmentUsed for factory systems that take releases only at a dealer.
- A car’s mobile connectionConnected cars receiving map data over their own link.
- The device’s memoryWhere the new release replaces the old one.
The computer route
On the computer route, a free program from the maker does the work: Garmin Express for Garmin navigators, MyDrive Connect for TomTom models without Wi-Fi, and the SmartGPS Eco site that Magellan names for its older RoadMate units. Rand McNally once had its own such program, the Dock, which it has since retired.
The pattern is the same in each case. Joined by a USB cable, the navigator appears to the computer as storage; the program identifies the model, reads the map and software versions on it, compares them with what the maker has published, and copies across anything newer. Some programs, such as TomTom’s, work through an account the owner holds with the maker.
The Wi-Fi route
Newer navigators skip the computer. Garmin, TomTom, Magellan and Rand McNally all describe current models that join a home Wi-Fi network and fetch releases directly from the maker. Garmin’s manuals list the practical conditions: a network with internet access, the navigator on external power for the whole transfer, and the unit within range until the release is in place.
The files are large, and the manuals say so. On a connection with a monthly data limit, one map release can use a noticeable share of it, which is a property of the release, not a sign that anything is wrong.
Storage, cards and regions
Storage shapes everything on both routes. A release replaces the whole map rather than amending it, so free space has to match a complete map; one TomTom GO manual notes that the old map is deleted first and the new one written afterward. TomTom’s guides also describe removing maps from a device to create space, and choosing speed camera data country by country.
Some navigators accept a memory card, which adds room for map data. Each maker’s documentation for the model in question sets out what a card can and cannot hold.
Software travels with the maps
A map release often arrives with a software release, and the two are different things. Software changes how the device behaves: menus, routing features, compatibility with newer map formats. A map release changes what the device knows about the ground.
Makers list smaller items too. TomTom’s manuals separate software, maps, Map Share corrections from other drivers, speed camera data and voices. A newer map can depend on newer software, which is why the maker’s own tools decide the order in which releases are applied.
Cars, and phones
Factory systems follow the carmaker’s rules, which HERE describes as covering what is available and how it is delivered. Depending on the car, that means a dealer, a carmaker’s program that prepares a card or drive (Hyundai’s Navigation Updater is one example), a map store the carmaker links to, or the car’s own mobile connection.
Phone navigation apps sit outside all of this. Most of them fetch map data from their makers’ servers as it is needed and refresh any saved offline areas on their own, so there is no separate release for the owner to obtain.
| Route | Who publishes the tool | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Computer and cable | The navigator’s maker (Garmin Express, MyDrive Connect) | A Windows or Mac computer, the USB cable, an internet connection. |
| Navigator’s Wi-Fi | Built into the device by its maker | A Wi-Fi network with internet access and, per Garmin, external power. |
| Card or USB drive | The carmaker (for example Hyundai’s Navigation Updater) | A personal computer and media of the type the car reads. |
| Dealer | The carmaker’s dealer network | The vehicle, usually identified by its VIN. |
| Mobile data | The carmaker | A car with a built-in mobile connection. |