Feature suggestion for quality control:

Currently there is no quick and easy way of testing the impact of a map edit on the quality of navigation that will result from the change. You make a change, hope for the best, keep watching the forums for the "map has been updated" message, and then go for a drive, specifying a route which hopefully will go through the segments on the map that were changed.

Here's an idea: you make a change using the map editor, save the changes, then switch the editor into a TEST mode. In this mode you can click to set a start point on the map, click to set and end point, and click to find a route between your start and end points. Once the route is calculated and displayed to you, and you see that it goes through the changes you've made, you click on a PLAY button and watch a virtual car navigate your route, and listen to the routing instructions the driver would hear has the car proceeds along the route.

The Google route finding app, when run from a browser, lets you do some of this. You can set the start and end point, let it find a route, and even drag the route on the map to change it. Being able to hear the nav commands would help close the loop further, helping to detect invalid street names, invalid turn restrictions, and invalid ramp geometry. It would especially help inexperienced editors prevent breaking the map or making it worst than it is.

I have some ideas on how to implement this, but I'ld like to hear thoughts from others on this forum first.

Testing is very, very important in any technology project, and right now as far as I know there are no tools to test the map and run it in simulation mode.

Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions on this.

Thanks!