I'm in the Military stationed overseas and just took delivery of my new Mini. It comes with US Maps since it's US Spec, and since I am here for a year more, I went ahead and ordered the Euro USB maps.

My question is this, in the manual it says it could take up to a few hours to update, that you should start the update and let it update while you are driving.

I'm hardly out for long road trips here. Normally I go to and from work, and a few errands here and there. Nothing that would require more than a 30 min drive one way.

Should I just start the update on a weekend and turn the car on every now and then to charge the battery? Has anyone else gone through this process?

 

I would suggest keeping the engine running during the entire process or connect a battery charger to the battery to maintain a constant voltage level. Low voltage levels and spikes created by starting car may interrupt your map update process or cause it to fail in some way.
Do you have a garage? If so, the battery charger method would be the way to go, you could safely let it update while doing other things.

 

It took hours on mine, in retrospect I should have just gone for a drive somewhere. It virtually drained my battery whilst doing it.

 

You don't have to keep driving while it updates. Start the update and then drive normally, if you stop so does the update. Then when you start driving again it continues where it left off. Takes approx 45 mins to update via a high speed USB stick.