CoPilot 6 Review

[Darren]

[neil01]

Oh dear - that sounds bad. If you are having problems getting hold of a copy, it doesn't look good for the rest of us!

[Balsa]

Looking forward to your review.

Some people have indicated that they have used the traffic feature already and that it works but haven't indicated how it performs.

Are you able to use Traffic? How?

I have CoPilot 4 (with an O2 XDA iiS) and will upgrade to CPL 6 if I can get real-time traffic. If I understood the ALK info. on their website correctly, you need to sign up with TMobile (at least in the UK) and use their GPRS service. Fine if you are with TMobile or you want a new MDA + contract + satnav ?? What about everyone else who has a phone/contract or even dare I say . . . a PDA already?

I had hoped that I could purchase a SIM only pay as you go or low cost pay monthly contract to get the required GPRS and use an old handset with bluetooth to get the traffic. However, I phoned both Carphone Warehouse and Dial-A-Phone both listed on ALK's European website but they dont want to know unless you are going to buy a phone with voice minutes as well. Not only that but their call centre "professionals" dont even know what CoPilot is; once Dial-A-Phone understood I was talking about satnav/GPS, they offered to sell me Tom-Tom! AARGH!!!!!

Tomorrow I will contact TMobile directly and will report on the outcome!

[ahenry]

[pdriver]

PONDEROUS

Thanks for the feedback on itinerary planning.

Does the optimisation work out the best route for each of the stops based on a predetermined order? Or put another way, can it change the order of the stops to arrive at the best route dependant on the current location as the starting point with a specified finish point (say home)?

[neil01]

Not wishing to answer for Ponderous, but so far as optimisation is concerned the following applies:

The start and finish are fixed, it is the ones inbetween which the program can re-arrange to find the optimum route.

As for attempting to work out the best route for each of the stops in a predetrermined order, this is the standard method of routing for all navigation software.

As for your question about Current position, if this is used, this will always be the Start position in any calculation, any stops you have entered (with the exception of the last which is the finish) are deemed as intermediate, and can (if you wish) be 'optimised'

[tivoboy]

does anyone know if the POI bug from the V5 has been fixed,

noteably, the bug that would show things like a GAS station, 5 miles from you, one thinking that meant 5 MILES AHEAD, but indeed the gas station could be 5 miles BEHIND and that if you continued to travel in the direction you were going, that gas station would soon be 10 MILES FROM YOU!!

I hated that bug, especially when running out of gas.

[neil01]

Was that a bug?

If I were running out of fuel, I would want to know where the nearest fuel was - even if that meant re-tracing my route!

I would be MOST unhappy if it only told me of fuel in front of me.

[tivoboy]

okay, not so much of a bug, but a real quirk. It did NOT tell you, hey this fuel is BEHIND you, and it simply showed that the nearest station is 5.0 miles. regardless of whether or not one clicked for POI, NEAR a CITY, or ON MY CURRENT route. If I am traveling from SFO to LAX on I-5 (a highway here) and needed fuel and clicked on POI FUELING STATION, when it shows me the nearest is 10 miles, I would like it to say, "this station is behind you" ,or NOT in the direction of travel based on the routing that you have chosen.

Personally, I don't KNOW where all these little towns are, and would rather keep going than turn around, and come back.

For example, the POI report might show Chevron 5.0 miles and Texaco 6 miles. Well, 5 miles sounds better than 6.0 miles, unless it is 5.0 miles BEHIND me. that would result in 10 additional miles of travel rather than only 6.0 miles of what will be planned travel regardless.

I wonder if this has been CORRECTED if not FIXED.

[deanj]

could anyone who had used CP6 tell me if the POIs are displayed on the screen while driving? i normally drive without the sound on my sat nav and just use the screen and i like the way with tomtom you can see speed cams etc ahead as you are driving but with CP5 the only time you can see POIs is if you are stopped.

[Skippy]

[neil01]

[PONDEROUS]

pdriver

Sorry, but I've been away for a few days. I agree with Neil01's reply, but would add the following.

As Neil says, your present position is usually taken as the start of a route. That is in Guidance mode. However, in Planning mode both the start and finish can be specified in advance. So, if you have drivers that take their vehicles home, you can pre-plan their routes for them starting at individual origins.

It is worth noting that, if for some reason a driver starts from a different point one day, CP 6 will recalculate the route from his/her actual origin, so the pre-planned stops might not be optimum that day. Similar will be true if spontaneous rerouting ocurs during the day. The reason is that, as we have seen, the handheld computer does not have the power to optimise more than 10 stops.

Following further experience with CP 6, I need to add a note of caution following my initial optimism about CP 6's routing, which I will do in a separate post below, shortly.
_________________
Dell Axims X50v & X30 (both WM 2003 2nd Edition). Copilot BTGPS3 and Fortuna Clip-on BT receivers. Jabra BT 250 audio headsets. Welltech 40032/AF32 BT handsfree audio. Copilot 6.0.4.110. TomTom Navigator 5.21. MS Autoroute/Pocket Streets 2005

[PONDEROUS]

Further to my optimistic remarks about Copilot 6’s routing on this thread, I now have to introduce a note of caution.

I confirm that routing across rural areas has vastly improved. In fact, I have had no real quarrel with any route I have so far asked CP 6 to calculate. However, having had the programme a little longer, I decided to experiment a little yesterday. Remembering the sort of route that Skippy gave as examples of CP 5’s unsatisfactory routing, I decided to try City Centre, Hull, East Yorkshire to City Centre, Dublin, Eire and a number of other routes using Irish ferry routes. Unfortunately, the routes in both Shortest and Quickest modes were over 150 miles too long. CP 6 usually ignored the ferries in Lancashire and Wales in favour of Scottish ferries. I haven’t looked up Skippy’s old routes, but these routes do seem similar.

Therefore, just how good or bad CP 6’s routing will turn out to be, overall, it is still too early to say and observation over some time by a number of users may be necessary to describe it thoroughly.
_________________
Dell Axims X50v & X30 (both WM 2003 2nd Edition). Copilot BTGPS3 and Fortuna Clip-on BT receivers. Jabra BT 250 audio headsets. Welltech 40032/AF32 BT handsfree audio. Copilot 6.0.4.110. TomTom Navigator 5.21. MS Autoroute/Pocket Streets 2005

[PONDEROUS]

I'm happy to be able once more to follow up immediately with better news regarding the post I made just above. Changing the Toll Roads setting from "No Restriction" to "Use if Necessary" (the third option is "Always Avoid") causes the Quickest route to go, quite sensibly, via a North Wales.

Curiously, it has no effect on Shortest routing. Also I can't really imagine why chaning this Toll road setting makes the difference. Still, there it is- a "tweak" that works so far.
_________________
Dell Axims X50v & X30 (both WM 2003 2nd Edition). Copilot BTGPS3 and Fortuna Clip-on BT receivers. Jabra BT 250 audio headsets. Welltech 40032/AF32 BT handsfree audio. Copilot 6.0.4.110. TomTom Navigator 5.21. MS Autoroute/Pocket Streets 2005

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