I called mapnsoft this morning to get a cancel my order, now that a download will be made available. I took the opportunity to ask some questions about the update and I have some interesting news to share:
- Map updates will now be free for vehicles from model year 2018 and up for 10 years. It will no longer be tied to the Blue Link subscription. After 10 years, they'll stop publishing map updates for the vehicle.
- If you choose to get a USB drive shipped to you instead of using the free download option, it will be $25 plus shipping.
- For pre-2018 vehicles, there will be no download available, but the price to get the USB will be $25 plus shipping. It will no longer be $145. That makes updates for my 2012 Sonata a lot more palatable now.
- The reason for the delay in releasing this map update is COVID-19, as expected.
- The reason for the back and forth about a download being available is that they've developed a new downloader for this update (hence the new 2018 and newer vehicles only restriction), and COVID-19 has restricted their ability to collaborate and get it done in time.
- I didn't ask about that new Hyundai website and how it relates to mapnsoft. If I had to guess, that's what we'll use on May 15 when the download for this update comes out. We'll see.
Oh and they refunded me no questions asked, because the order hadn't shipped yet. I don't blame them at all for being affected by COVID-19. Just poor coordination of going live with the order page, and only mentioning the download option the next day. Anyway, problem solved.