I updated the map database in my car
I updated the map database in my car
58.6GB of map data just to make sure I've got all of Europe covered and then some. I will probably never drive to Portugal. But now I can.
My car has the original maps from 2015. I'd like to update them but Toyota charges friggin $300 for a microSD card. I can afford it but I'm determined to find a way to pirate it out of principle.
- I was happy to learn that Volvo provides the maps for free.
- I was unhappy to learn that said maps are downloaded to USB with their own software that is built for Windows and MacOS
- I was happy to learn that the program ran fine via wine. It struggled with finding USB drive, but the program could write to a folder instead.
- The USB drive just needs fat32 and the map files written to its root, and that allowed for my car to recognize and grab the update.
- I was unhappy to learn that even the newest version of the map still hasn't recognized this major change to a road not far away from me.
Somebody did a video about a car brand like that. There's no DRM on the card. If you know someone that has it you can just copy it.
Yeah I had a feeling that would be the case. Problem is finding someone with the same radio. It's not like I'm going to find this on pirate bay. I even considered test driving a newer model and bringing my laptop with me lol
You can find cheap map cards on Amazon apparently for like $30 USD
I'd love to do that, too, but the car seems to have a severe dislike to any recent types of SD cards. Maximum 32GB, and none of the current technology ones will do.
Cool! Never know when you get to Portugal.
My car's brand got sold by VAG to PSA. VAG said this is the license for all the map shit, you can buy it if you want so you can service your customers. PSA said No thanks!
So now my car will never get another map update ever again, the latest data is from 2016 and as you can imagine doesn't really match reality in any way shape or form. The builtin GPS was bad anyways, so not a big loss. I'm an old person so I still drive pretty much everywhere without GPS. But it can come in handy at some times, but I've learnt the hard way not to trust anything that stupid thing says.
I've considered a phone mount so I can just use my phone for navigation, but never got around to it.