Vehicle manufacturers GPS updates

Seems from many comments here and elsewhere, many Vehicle Manufacturers are very tardy when it comes to making map updates available. I have just purchased a new Toyota Prius C and the “Here” map is dated 2016.
When asking the Toyota dealer why I did not get the most recent map update the answer was that Toyota only updates every 3 years.
As an owner of two Garmin GPS units both with lifetime map updates and experiencing most of the thousands of changes I have fed into Mapcreator appearing in less than a year I can not see why the vehicle manufacturers even want to remain in the loop.
For those of us that focus on making updates is frustrates me to see none of my changes appear in my car GPS forcing me to turn off the car GPS and mount my Garmin over the top of it.
Is there a way that map updates could be made without the vehicle manufacturer in the loop, in my case it is simply a replacement SD card.

Hi Kevin
I think it is terrible that manufacturers treat us this way, Toyota should be ashamed of themselves. Apparently these manufacturers don’t realise how big Australia is and how fast it is growing/changing. It’s OK for them, the streets of Tokyo haven’t changed much in recent years – just more highrise apartments but the streets remain the same.
In my case, Mazda do updates twice per year but my thousands of edits do not appear for at least 12 months.
I also have a Navman GPS with lifetime map updates which has more recent maps. Running the Mazda GPS and Navman together on a recent 650Km round trip (last weekend), it was enlightening to see old maps on the Mazda and my newer edits on the Navman.
On the return trip of 325Km with both set to the same Route Options, I set to go ‘Home’. What a joke, Mazda said 340Km, 4 hrs 10 mins travel, via a certain route, Navman said 333Km, 3 Hrs 50 min via a different route. I took an entirely different route than the two suggested ones (avoiding Melbourne and particularly the Western Ring Road).
On my route, both units updated and recalcalculated with stupid suggestions and long travel times.
At one stage my route was to go straight ahead at a cross road, Navman says go right (longer distance, longer time), Mazda says go left (even longer distance, longer time).
Actual trip: 325Km 3hours 35min.
I have done this trip many times making the sure all the roads on my route have the correct attributes as well as checking the attributes of the suggested roads which in the past have revealed some surprising errors on suggested routes i.e. an actual road was unpaved, poor condition and you could only travel at approx 70 Km/h yet originally was set to paved, 100 Km/h speed limit with 130 Km.h average !
Lets hope the car manufacturers lift their game.
Keep up the good work – someone may appreciate our work eventually.

Hi Kevin, The available update frequency for in-car vehicle navigation is determined by the car manufacturer. As we start to see more semi-automated drive features, the demand for frequent updates will increase with some vehicles already implementing connected driving solutions. I’ll check on Toyota updates and see if the advice you’ve been given is correct.

Hi John, There a differing factors that contribute to the routing algorithms including user inputs such as ‘fastest, shortest, most efficient’ as well as recent road updates, however local knowledge can not be discounted as a valuable source of information and may result in more efficient routes.

At HERE, we utilise a variety of solutions to ensure all changes are implemented in the HERE map at the appropriate time. Your contributions to Map Creator are valuable in capturing these changes and will continue to play an important role as we move to connected vehicles and more frequent updates. Thanks for your ongoing efforts.

Hi Kevin, to find out more about Toyota map updates, you could contact the Toyota Guest Experience Centre directly: https://www.toyota.com.au/contact

On contacting Toyota Experience I received a very polite response including the following,

“Regrettably we cannot assist with any technical questions of this nature. As we are not privy to any part or accessory information we would advise contacting the Parts department. ”

As it was the local Dealer that gave the three year update story, I guess I will just have to mount one of my Garmin’s in the vehicle and find some way to turn off the Toyota navigation system.

I did not intentionally buy a car with a GPS system in it but when it was supplied I did at least expect it to be up to date and having made so many road changes locally it just aggravates, seems such a pity.