User Reviews about CoPilot Live CP11-NA-USB CoPilot Live 11 North America USB

I will be writing this from the CoPilot 11 for Trucks. The only difference is that the truck edition attempts to keep you on truck-only routes. NO truck routing SOFTWARE is perfect for this. The routing is so-so. It does get you from point A to point B, and I haven't had to open up the Rand-McNally Motor Carrier Atlas since I got in my truck. Here are the issues I have with it.

1) Often times, it does not combine the total for an expressway or a highway. In other words

2) GPS loses signal, and can't get it back every now and again. You can't just unplug and replug the dongle back in. You have to restart co-pilot in order to resume tracking. This happened on BOTH laptops that were installed. This can be annoying when you are driving.

3) The way it looks up addresses. It will first ask you for a city and state or zip code. Then it gives you several counties to choose from. Why can't it just let me use just the zip code or city/state? How am I supposed to know which county the business is in if I've never been there before? Duh. So sometimes you may find yourself going back to select a different county if the first one you selected didn't work. The way it looks up a street. It handles highway numbers very poorly. Also, Interstate exit #s lookup is cumbersome.

Then sometimes you cannot find a street number, so it will say number not found. So why not show the closest point to that street # on the map?

Also, it should have a shippers directory. Since it is supposibly based on PC Miler data, it should have the directory which allows you to just look up by name the shipper/receiver.

Also, sometimes it cannot find an address at all, but I look up google maps or other mapping software and it pinpoints the address exactly. Or copilot cannot find a street, but if I use the "cross street" option, all of a sudden, the software finds the street.

4) They way it calculates turn-by-turn directions. When you use google maps or most other mapping software, if you have to be on a highway, say, i-85 for 300 miles, then it will say 300 miles.

5) Would be nice if it warned you before crossing a state line. Software like this for trucks should keep you posted on upcoming weight stations and state lines. It should have an option to do this automatically. Let you know xx miles out of upcoming weigh stations. It also cannot customize truck stops. Say I want to know where all the pilot truck stops are on my route, I cannot plan this.

5) In fact, the options menu is somewhat weak. they have pre-selected options and you cannot customize much.

6) The interstate exit/mile marker lookup system. If I am able to find something on a map, copilot should be able to tell me what exit it is near, or between, or the mile marker.

7) It routes you down streets but doesn't tell you other options. It would be nice if it told you other options of what you could take to get to the same destination. I noticed that you may find yourself going down a road that is legally ok for trucks, but you should have perhaps turned 1-2 streets prior. So keep your eyes peeled when going through a town.

I've also heard of drivers actually switching back to copilot 9 truck because 11 was a complete rewrite and they took out quite a few useful tools. ver 9 was more stable, too.

But for $300, you might as well just get Microsoft Streets and Trips 2007 w/usb gps dongle for about $40-60. (heard there is a auto re-routing feature that you cannot shut off in 2008 and it may mess up newbie truck drivers). You have a lot more configurable options with S&T You can easily tweak this to only keep you on major highways. Your carrier should be able to provide directions from the major highway.

Then add on a $40 template from [...] that will enable you to double-check your truck route, plus add 5000 truck stops, rest areas, and superwalmarts across the country. I think it also has weigh stations, too. If you do choose to upgrade MS S&T, you only need to cough up about $40-100. Vs $200-300 for each copilot truck upgrade.

[...] -- Truck edition. It is a great idea, but they need to put work into it....