Exciting news for overland travellers is that Tracks4Africa maps are now included as a standard map in the new Ford South Africa range of vehicles which are fitted with the SYNC 3 navigation system. The Ford Ranger (one of SA’s top selling vehicles) and Everest models were recently upgraded with the SYNC 3 system.
Johann Groenewald, Managing Director of T4A, is very excited about this development since it has been in the pipeline for some time. “Ford approached us two years ago about the possibility of including our maps into their in-car navigation system and early last year I was involved in testing our map on their system. After a few small tweaks from our side Ford went ahead with production and they have now included our map in their SYNC 3 system.”
This map display is a little different from the Tracks4Africa GPS map, but the exact same data is used for the SYNC 3 map. The Tracks4Africa GPS map is updated twice a year, in May and October, but the SYNC 3 updates won’t necessarily coincide with these dates as it is likely that the SYNC 3 maps will be updated yearly by Ford and their navigation service provider, who also determine in which vehicles it is installed.
Johann stressed the fact that, as with other factory fitted navigation systems, this system is a Ford vehicle part that can only be supplied and serviced by a Ford dealership and not by Tracks4Africa. Customers with queries about the map or navigation system should contact Ford directly.
Other automotive navigation systems using Tracks4Africa maps
- In 2014 Land Rover included Tracks4Africa on their in-car entertainment system which was fitted into Land Rover Discovery models.
- Tracks4Africa maps are compatible with certain Caska after-market entertainment systems. These are supplied by Planet Electronics.
All these systems work with the iGo navigation software which is the same as that used by the Tracks4Africa Overland Navigator App, available for Android and Apple devices.
Map features
The Tracks4Africa map represents data compiled over more than a decade by thousands of serious overland adventurers who have recorded their route on a GPS device. Their tracks are validated against those of other users who have driven the same routes before being incorporated into the map.
Currently the map includes:
- More than 1,1 million km of fully navigable roads, covering the whole of Africa
- Close to 4 000 campsites (the most complete camping data base in Africa)
- More than 155 000 points of interest
- 1 452 protected areas such as national parks and game reserves
- Over 13 000 accommodation listings
- 10 562 fuel stops
When we travelled to Namibia in 2017. The Ford Ranger we hired from Europcar did not have the navigation system fitted. its as though Europcar .don’t want their customers to have the benefits of the standard equipment fitted to Ford 4 wheel drive bakkies.. It was not a problem to us though we took our own Garmin GPS and Tracks4Africa paper and
Gps MAP
I have noticed that when travelling on the skeleton coast when you venture into the diamond area(By Accident) the gps’s screen goes green and it states you are not allowed to navigate in this area… which is true. but when it happens how do you get out of that area as you can no longer use your gps to navigate and you are now driving blind.?
Good Afternoon,
I have a 2015 Discovery 4. Please advise if I can update the installed Tracks4Africa map on the navigation system. If so, do I do it through land Rover or can Tracks4Africa?
Hi Aslam, the system is managed by Land Rover so we are not able to update it. The only option is to approach Land Rover, however I know that they opted not to supply updates for this system which is a pity.
Hi.. do you know if maps for Africa would work on the Sync2?
Unfortunately bought a 2018 Ford Ranger 2.2 XLT and none of the GPS systems work including Tracks for Africa and Ford is unable or unwilling to fix the problem
Hi Peter,
If your vehicle was sold with a navigation system and is under warrantee then surely its a matter of them honouring the warrantee. Unfortunately we cannot be of help with this problem but if I was you I would persist in the matter.
For those users that have NON Nav sync3
what about T4A to work through sync3 APPLINK like Sygic car Nav
It is good that Ford’s South Africa range will add Tracks4Africa Map navigation in it’s vehicle. It will make the journey of the travellers much easier. In African countries like Ghana address system is quite typical so the map navigation will help the people who are new there extremely.