Tele Atlas, a provider of digital map databases and real-time traffic information in the United States, has released its turn-by-turn digital map database, MultiNet North America 2.4. According to the company, this database includes map coverage for the United States, Canada, international waters and country borders, supported by 13 million third-party points-of-interest (POI) data, evaluation data and GDF Viewer+, a tool suite for geographic data file (GDF) viewing, debugging and testing. "We are thrilled to be delivering this powerful offering ahead of schedule," said George Fink, president of Tele Atlas North America, Inc. "This product demonstrates our commitment to live up to the highest industry standards for quality products, on-time delivery and top-notch service." This release of MultiNet North America 2.4 is available in GDF (geographic data file) format, a de facto international standard featuring an application-independent data model, traffic and transport related extensions, flexibility and extendibility. It was built to Tele Atlas' global specification, which allows customers to readily expand applications to include coverage of multiple continents. Additional industry formats are also scheduled for release during the first half of 2003, according to the company. Tele Atlas says it has developed a suite of GDF viewing, debugging, and testing tools named the GDF Viewer+. GDF Viewer+ offers map and text display capabilities for the Tele Atlas GDF-AS files content. "Even in its prototyping stage a few months ago, the GDF Viewer made it possible to quickly detect the root cause of issues and answer questions between Tele Atlas data and our applications and processes," said Dr. Ing Karlheinz Knipp of Innovative Systems, a subsidiary of Harman, Inc. "Without the GDF Viewer, we wouldn't have been able to do all these things at the speed we did. I don't want to be without this tool in my future work." According to the company, the Tele Atlas GDF Viewer+ uses raw GDF formatted data and is independent of any industry platforms. It offers a vast array of functionalities that can be expanded based on need. Because it uses the raw data, no intermediary conversions take place when reading the GDF source file and displaying it on the screen. "We believe that the quality of our data combined with this tool, which allows customers to examine the rich Tele Atlas map content and more readily adapt their converter to incorporate our data, offers a compelling advantage," said Elissa Fink, vice president product management and engineering, Tele Atlas North America. "Customers will be able to use this tool to free up resources and deploy quality products faster." About Tele Atlas North America, Inc.
Tele Atlas North America, Inc., headquartered in Menlo Park, CA, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tele Atlas NV. Tele Atlas North America, Inc. had its beginnings in 1983 with a vision to provide geographic information in digital form. Today, the company says it enables its customers' success through leadership in delivering both digital maps and real-time traffic information for business and consumer applications. The company focuses on providing content to key market sectors including Telematics/Automotive Navigation, Location Based Services (LBS), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). For more information on Tele Atlas products and services, please visit www.na.teleatlas.com.