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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A great product, IN CONCEPT, but it needs work..., September 6, 2000
I've been using CoPilot 2000 for about a month and have had it on one 1000+ mile trip, as well as numerous shorter jaunts. Let's just say that I think it could use a lot more maturity, and that I'm greatly disappointed in the (lack of) tech support I've experienced.The biggest issues are not in the accuracy of the database or the quality of the GPS hardware. Neither has been a real problem for me. The problems I have are in the general usability of the software. I haven't had any actual crashes, but I've run into several annoying bugs that make using this a lot harder than it should be. I'm disappointed in the quality of the documentation, both written and online. A lot of things don't work as documented. In some places, the docs mention window buttons or tabs that don't seem to exist. Conversely, there are features and indicators that the program appears to have but there's no explanation in the docs on how to use them or what they mean. Finally, some functions that I think are obvious don't appear to be there. For example, "show me where I'll be if I drive 550 miles along the chosen route" (so you can plan where to spend the night), or "scroll along the chosen route" (you can scroll the map, but you have to diddle the scroll bars yourself to keep your route in the center. Hard to do when you're in a bouncing car!), or "show me what I'll find at the next exit". This is all basic trip-planning stuff. I'd love to talk to the folks at TravRoute and ask them about all of this. Perhaps I'm just doing something dumb and obvious, or not looking in the right place for help. But, so far anyway, their tech support is a black hole. Despite a couple E-mail messages and several phone calls, I have yet to speak to anyone or even get an E-mail or call acknowledging that they've heard me. This product has a lot of promise, but it's not for the faint-of-heart. The execution doesn't quite meet the promise, in my opinion.
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