CoPilot from ALK technologies has been a major player in Android (and other platforms) navigation for a while now.
ALK was the first firm to offer a paid-for navigation solution to Android users, as previously there had only been open source offerings, which had very sketchy map coverage. When CoPilot Live was first made available it also offered fantastic value for money.
At a time when TomTom and other vendors where charging around £60 (apprx. $95) for UK navigation, ALK’s CoPilot was available for £25 (approx. $40). The fact that it turned out to be an excellent navigation app only added to the superb value for money.
Imagine, then, our interest when ALK announced a new version of CoPilot to be released on the Android market.
The new version has seen a major UI overhaul, improved navigation and a number of new features.
First of all, the new user interface. It is excellent. The experience is a little bit like going from drinking instant coffee to your first ever espresso. You had always been happy before, but now there is no way you can go back. The previous UI always seemed fairly good -the new one, however, blows all previous incarnations out of the water. It looks better and is far easier to use. You can also access menus and options with far greater ease.
Both the user interface and the app generally are highly customisable. In fact, once you first download the app, you need to invest a reasonable amount of effort to get it set up as you would like it. For example, the ETAs that CoPilot provides seem way off. This turns out to be because it is configured to treat all roads as if you were driving a very long way under the speed limit. Once the appropriate settings have been tweaked, the time estimates suddenly become more realistic. Other settings will need adjusting as well including which points of interest to display on the map – too many, and you run the risk of having a very cluttered view.
The routing has also been given an upgrade. As has the ability to tweak the route. Whenever CoPilot generates a route for you, it will also offer one or two alternatives as well as the difference in time and distance for each alternative. Selecting the alternative is as simple as clicking on a nice, large box and selecting “Go”.
ALK have also introduced a new feature whereby you can “drag” the route. This is a very nice little addition which makes it much easier to tweak the route – especially if there is a road you want to avoid.
Which brings us nicely to the traffic service. Unfortunately this is an (optional) annual subscription service and it does have some flaws. If, for example, there are some roadworks up ahead, the CoPilot will warn you of a traffic problem – even if the traffic is so light that the delay is negligible. Once again, however, the flexibility of the settings comes to the fore here, as you can request only to be notified of incidents that will delay you by more than a certain amount of time. As a result, you can make sure you are only interrupted by the most serious traffic incidents. This is particularly useful given the amount of trust you need to give the traffic service. If you accept the offer to reroute around the problem – you’ll never know if the incident is as serious as suggested and if you will in fact be unnecessarily delayed by your detour. It is not unknown for CoPilot to complain of an incident that turns out to be nothing at all. In fairness, this is also true of other traffic services and there will be times when the traffic service saves you time.
The major downside to the traffic service is that you are required to interact with the program to confirm whether or not you want to accept the detour – not exactly the safest course of action when hurtling down the road at 70mph!
Overall, CoPilot Live Premium offers a polished and effective navigation service with a reasonable price tag. Of course, there is always the question of whether or not an Android user even needs to invest in a paid for GPS navigation app. With Google maps/navigation now also offering a traffic service there is a convincing argument to say there is simply no point in investing your money in apps such as CoPilot Live.
CoPilot does offer greater flexibility and more features over Google’s offering, such as alternate routes; location sharing with Twitter, Faceboobk etc as well as integration with Wikipedia so that you can find out about your destination before you go.
One of Google’s strengths had been the fact that you could search more easily for points of interest – it often includes POIs that CoPilot simply does not. Now that CoPilot also integrates with Bing local search, this is less of an advantage. CoPilot also has the significant advantage of being available entirely offline (although the traffic service will not work without signal). Google Maps, now allows you to download sections of map to your device, but it is nowhere near as effective as having an entire country or even continent already on your phone.
Whether or not you decide that it is worth purchasing a separate app as well as Google maps will probably depend on your specific needs. If you do decide to then CoPilot is an excellent choice and well worth taking a look at. Taken purely on its own merits and not as an alternative to the free Google Maps, I am happy to award CoPilot Live 8/10.
CoPilot Live Premium is available now on the Android Market. Make sure you purchase the premium version as you will otherwise be buying an out of date version of CoPilot.
