Rouen Bound

By Mark Tennent in Reader

Posted in utilities, Internet, iPhone, Apple on March 28, 2010 at 11:37 am

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We had been sitting in a ferry station, with a ticket for a French location. All around us we could see, French truckers talking loudly. Our holiday was neatly planned with CoPliot Live and Garmin to hand.

Rouen bound, we set off listening to both their sound, until we reached the roundabout at Arques-la-Bataille. That’s where the arguments started. We had managed to get two hundred miles without any “are we nearly there yet’s”.

Emily wanted us to take the second turning but Sarah said it was the first. Both would take us to the correct destination, Sarah’s was slightly quicker but also longer, whereas Emily had correctly identified the straightest route – which in Normandy means no bends in the road for tens of miles.

That was the last time we used the Garmin. Emily, the lady inside CoPilot Live Europe, took over all the navigation and we soon trusted her completely. CoPilot Live’s French maps, made by Navteq, are excellent and only suggested a dirt track route on a couple of occasions. Unless the French have spent the last winter changing their infrastructure, there were plenty of times when Emily thought a roundabout was a junction, leaving us to determine which was the correct road.

Hissy Fit
If we selected the wrong route, she didn’t get upset and announce she was “recalculating”, or huffily suggest we do a u-turn. Instead, she rapidly examined the options and displayed the correct route on our iPhone’s screen within a second or so.

Anyone who has driven round Rouen knows what a manic transport system they have there. Roads suddenly split into three, leaving you to choose tunnel, bridge or straight on. Meanwhile you rapidly approach a large blue traffic divider and have to decide which side of it to pass. Emily calmly accepted our mistakes and showed us how to navigate their crazy roads, even via tiny backstreets and underground, out of sight of satellites. Other more human copilots would get completely lost in such circumstances.

CoPilot Live Europe’s coloured map display suits the open roads of mainland northern Europe. On the iPhone’s large screen it makes it easy to drive as well as watching for the sudden switchback hairpins which can appear in what is otherwise a miles-long straight stretch of road. CoPilot can also be use with no destination set, as a driving aid showing local speed limits, the road ahead.

Points of Interest
CoPilot Live also excels at showing where points of interest are. They can be set to only show on screen while the vehicle is stationary or can be chosen from an enormous database listing everything from ATM’s to vehicle repair. This made it really easy to find the nearest Intermarché, who have a special offer on duck breasts this week, or Carrefours for their cheap Morgon, or Champion for the best diesel price.

Conclusion
The only drawbacks with CoPilot Live Europe are the size of the application download at nearly 2GB which really has to be done over a wired Internet connection. Running CoPilot Live can rapidly drain an iPhone’s battery. A cheap universal mount and Kensington in-car charger cost just over £10 including postage and doubles up as a power lead for any USB device. Cellphone companies make data roaming so incredibly expensive that it has to be turned off while abroad, removing some of CoPilot Live Europe’s Live features such as: weather information.

Otherwise, CoPilot Live Europe, on the iPhone at least, is superb. It’s price is cheaper than a dedicated satnav with the added bonus of free updates to maps, points of information and speed cameras. We won’t leave Britain without it.

Rated: 100% (2 votes)

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