Copilot Caravan - "New beginning"

[Two on Tour]

Just received an email from Copilot regarding upgrading from the now retired Copilot Caravan which they have in my opinion screwed up of late.
I'm still using an earlier version Copilot Caravan which has some of the features that they tossed into the bin on later versions.

I'll be interested to hear if this upgrade is any good and worth changing to or whether I'm better sticking with what I have got.

 

[Pausim]

Just had a quick look at it and can not even find how to change from KPH/kilometres to MPH/miles.

 

[ChrisL]

Ok to change to miles tap on the three bars on the top left of the screen then tap settings on the bottom left then tap regional & voices and then you can change between Imperial and Metric. It works fine for me so far, you can install it alongside the old version if you have enough space on your device but remember there will be no more updates for the old version.

So I should add that if you just had the car version before, you won't get the caravan features in the upgrade although I think the icon is the same it's now called CoPilot GPS whichever version you have.

 

[Chuns]

How I wish I could go back to the older version where you could select the degree to which you favoured one of five types of road, and the speeds you would average on them. You could have several different profiles, which you could deploy according to which vehicle you were in, and what sort of journey you wanted.

They claim this 'new beginning' is better. I don't think it is.

 

[ChrisL]

You could have several different profiles, which you could deploy according to which vehicle you were in, and what sort of journey you wanted.

That's true, I don't know why they did away with that but they did away with it in the last versions of the old CoPilot before the latest upgrade, so we still have different profiles for different vehicles but only quickest or shortest routes, what I do is exagerate the vehicle dimensions which stops it sending me down little lanes (usually)

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[138go]

I had a CoPilot Truck version that you could put the size of MH in. It worked reasonably well but the NEW Version which I have downloaded now wants me to pay them £80 A YEAR for the features. It now lets me navigate using their basic settings but I cannot search for anything until I pay. So I have gone back to iGO PAL which lets you put truck dimensions and a whole host of other features in. The newer versions of CoPilot do not run on Android KitKat 4.1.1

 

[ChrisL]

Did you log in, in the MyCoPilot/My Account page? if not, try that, if that doesn't work then email them and complain.

Check the link, it does say all premium features will be transfered to the new version and truck is one of them

 

[DuxDeluxe]

Just received an email from Copilot regarding upgrading from the now retired Copilot Caravan which they have in my opinion screwed up of late.
I'm still using an earlier version Copilot Caravan which has some of the features that they tossed into the bin on later versions.

I'll be interested to hear if this upgrade is any good and worth changing to or whether it's still just A to B by the fastest route and I'm better sticking with what I have got.

I got the message, but could not see the difference

 

[Pausim]

How I wish I could go back to the older version where you could select the degree to which you favoured one of five types of road, and the speeds you would average on them.

Very true. I have never found Copilot easy to use and the traffic information was dreadful. However the one redeeming feature was the road profiling which forced routes away from silly roads. Without this there is very little I can’t find done better on free apps. Why on earth did they drop their one unique selling point?

 

[Steve N Tracy]

The latest version is rubbish compared with the old caravan specific version with road profiling, yes you can enter your vehicle dimensions, which it then ignores regularly.
I do not use it any more, and anybody thinking of purchasing should look at the reviews on the android store first.

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[Jim]

It seems whenever coPilot upgrades its all based on monetisation for them and pretty much nothing else.

 

[Pausim]

It is not only the most expensive app I have ever purchased but one of the least used.

 

[Whitebirdyman]

I too had the old co-pilot with the road profiling and thought the newer versions were a backward step. Earlier this year I had a very long conversation with their "help" desk, who initially fobbed me off with weak excuses as has been previously documented on this forum.

Over a few weeks I kept on at them and the end result was that they gave me access to the new co-pilot caravan, which covers motorhomes too - for a one year period and they further gave me a code for a 2nd year. Having tried it out, it is a mixed bag.

Good things:
routing is generally OK and offers options
display of route and turns is good
easy to switch between a toll and non-toll profile
easy to load own poi
one can navigate to an OS grid reference, which is good for me as I walk with the Ramblers and start points are in that system.

Bad things:
the annual subscription
speed limits wrong
restricted roads incorrect for motorhome

To expand on the above regarding speed limits, my Frankia is 6.5m long, 3m high and is plated at 4250kg and all this is set up in the profile. Despite that, the speed limits displayed are those for a vehicle plated at 3500kg or less. I have tested this in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Spain (plus the UK of course) and it is always wrong, except for example the 80kph limit on French single carriageway roads. It does not know about the lower speed limits on motorways and it does not know about the stretches of some motorways through cities where .5t is 90 but >3.5t is 80. I would never rely entirly on the sat nav for speed limits, but if they can't get it right they should not bother displaying them at all.

Regarding the restricted roads issue, if the profile is >3.5t then the sat nav will avoid all roads with a truck restriction, it does not differentiate those restrictions which crop up particularly in France where the sign is applicable to goods vehicles but not to motorhomes.

I am still using co-pilot but would hesitate to pay because of the limitations. I tried Sygic but not convinced by that and loading poi seemed impossible. I recently did a trip as passenger with someone using Google maps and that seemed to choose very odd routes and I did not like the display. I have tried Waze with the car and that is OK, but no own poi and it is limited in functionality. I have tried the newer TomTom in trial version and quite liked the display and routing, but again no own poi.

Jim

 

[hilldweller]

Same here. Just powered up tablet to see if copilot has ugrades and up comes the hard sell. Though I've rejected the upgrade to 10.10 so don't know if they were going to alter the lifetime terms I'm on now.

I too will wait for another brave FUNster to check out the new deal.

 

[ChrisL]

I think this thread got posted twice somehow, see the link for the other thread.

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[hilldweller]

Same here. Just powered up tablet to see if copilot has ugrades and up comes the hard sell. Though I've rejected the upgrade to 10.10 so don't know if they were going to alter the lifetime terms I'm on now.

I too will wait for another brave FUNster to check out the new deal.

 

[hilldweller]

I think this thread got posted twice somehow, see the link for the other thread.

Thank you, I thought I seen it before.

 

[Two on Tour]

There's something spooky going on with this new updated forum, what with this thread being repeated 7 minutes apart and the TheBig 1 with his multiple entries.

 

[hilldweller]

Poltergeist.

 

[Clarky]

I’ve been using CoPilot GPS for many months now and not been asked to pay anything..............so far.
I updated from the previous Caravan version which I had paid for and still have most of the functions from before, with the exception of being able to set speeds for different categories of roads.
Seems to route as well as anything else and is almost instantaneous compared to my very slow Garmin.
I have several vehicle types set up, >4.5t plus vehicle dimensions, .5t plus dimensions (for those roads in France with truck 3.5t limits) and car.
I agree about the speed limits being incorrect for the moho but some are also incorrect on my Garmin.

Has anyone found a perfect sat nag yet???

Richard

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[Wagoneer]

I run the basic car version, paid for. We find the split-screen 2D display (right side of screen) very useful, especially at roundabouts where it gives a graphical representation.

Anybody know if the split-screen is still available in the latest version.

 

[ChrisL]

I run the basic car version, paid for. We find the split-screen 2D display (right side of screen) very useful, especially at roundabouts where it gives a graphical representation.

Anybody know if the split-screen is still available in the latest version.

Split screen is still there on tablets only.

 

[Wagoneer]

Split screen is still there on tablets only.

Thanks ChrisL. I did try the update on my mobile and found no split screen facility. It's good to know it's still available on a tablet which I use in the MH.

 

[FrankL0]

I’m giving up on CoPilot, which is a pity because the app seems to, on the face of it, offer so much of what I wanted.

But the support for the app is approaching non- existent! Wrong - it IS non existent!

When trying to call the well hidden phone number in USA, they obviously would prefer that they don’t have to actually speak to their customers to the point that I eventually gave up. Sadly I suspect that is what they wanted me to do!

So my search continues for an app (with customer support) that will work for us.

 

[Pausim]

I’m giving up on CoPilot, which is a pity because the app seems to, on the face of it, offer so much of what I wanted.

But the support for the app is approaching non- existent! Wrong - it IS non existent!

When trying to call the well hidden phone number in USA, they obviously would prefer that they don’t have to actually speak to their customers to the point that I eventually gave up. Sadly I suspect that is what they wanted me to do!

So my search continues for an app (with customer support) that will work for us.

Try posting a 1* review on the App Store explaining that their customer support is non existent. I did this a couple of years ago about their awful traffic information. It got a rapid response, it didn’t resolve their traffic issues they blamed a third party supplier but it got them out of the woodwork very rapidly. They don’t like bad news scrawled across their shopfront and like to post a developers response explaining how they can help you.

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[Reallyretired]

I use copilot caravan and have avoided all updates. The tablet I run it on uses quite an old version of android so the new version might not run on it.
The best satnavs seem to be the cheapest, google maps is great and free but doesn't allow for size and weight, the best all round I find is the chinese cheapy which allows hieght/weight and a lot of road options (I usually go for avoid tolls and easy route options) though the hardware is not particularly robust.

 

[PeteH]

One of the saddest things about the "newer" versions of software upgrades (In my Case T-T) is that the facility to enter a max speed, which existed on my redundant XL, Is no longer there. I mostly run well below maximum posted road speed, so the "forecast" ETA is never accurate. And the most frequent question from the LH seat is "How long now"

 

[FrankL0]

Try posting a 1* review on the App Store explaining that their customer support is non existent. I did this a couple of years ago about their awful traffic information. It got a rapid response, it didn’t resolve their traffic issues they blamed a third party supplier but it got them out of the woodwork very rapidly. They don’t like bad news scrawled across their shopfront and like to post a developers response explaining how they can help you.
[/QUOT pm

Try posting a 1* review on the App Store explaining that their customer support is non existent. I did this a couple of years ago about their awful traffic information. It got a rapid response, it didn’t resolve their traffic issues they blamed a third party supplier but it got them out of the woodwork very rapidly. They don’t like bad news scrawled across their shopfront and like to post a developers response explaining how they can help you.

Thanks Pausim.
I did as you suggested, which brought about an email offering a web link to help.
I won’t be following up with it because to spend even more time on yet another bewildering web site that tells me absolutely everything except what I need to know is a waste of my time.
The fact that they did not offer a phone number to specifically talk through my issue says it all about how they care (don’t) about helping customers.
it’s an attitudinal thing and I won’t invest more time with them.
Has anyone experience of the Sygic Truck Navigation product? That is next on my trail to find a product that works reliably. ;-) F