Original review published on Steve Litchfield's 3-Lib.Patrick Fox's CoDriver takes the
directions produced by your route planner software and presents them to you in
clear, screen-high text, junction by junction. It will even read them out to
you! You can step through the instructions with the space bar, or connect a GPS
and have them read out automatically as you approach each turn.
So you don't like stopping to ask directions or relying on the ability of
your passenger to stay awake and be able to read a map ? Then this
lovely little bit of software is for you. We tested it through France, into
Spain and back and we didn't even get lost in Rouen.
You do need either Route Planner (on the Series 5
etc) or Autoroute (on a PC) to calculate your route and then there's an idiot
proof (I still haven't managed to get it wrong) method to transfer this route
to CoDriver.
Once imported into the application you can load different saved routes and
also reverse them for the return journey. The functions are very simple and
straight forward. If you haven't got a GPS (lovely toy) then you simply have to
step forward to each junction as you arrive.
The screen shows in big letters the direction (if known) and the road
number, with the distance until the next junction below. There's also a simple
"route bar" along the top, representing the whole journey, which is
divided by junction (with name as well, if there's room). As you pass each
junction the bar slowly fills in, so at a glance you can see how well you are
doing. It will also speak the junction details (although too quietly for my VW
camper) and illuminate the screen.
Sounds OK so far, but attach your latest gadget, a GPS (Global Positioning
System), and hey presto! You have the most informative co-driver in the world
(although mundane conversations are sadly lacking). The programme tracks the
distances between junctions and warns you at a user defined distance before the
next junction, counting down the distance and filling the "route bar"
in as you go. With simple short cuts you can pause the program if you get lost
or go via a diversion and if all else fails a simple button press will reset
from the start of a junction. It would be useful though if you could enter how
far away you think the junction is, as we did press the odd button once in a
while and with the next junction an hour away left CoDriver a little helpless.
An excellent recent improvement automatically switches to and updates the
Route Planner position (if you have it on your Psion), so you can see your
progress on a real moving map, flicking back to CoDriver when you need it. With
a few extra helpful features like "Average speed", "Where Am I
?" and "ETA" (GPS only) this is a fantastic bit of software and
we found it very accurate and intuitive.
It doesn't replace that lovely paper map but does give you the confidence
and peace of mind that you are travelling in the right direction and which is
the next junction/road needed. For the first time, I didn't find myself keeping
glancing at the map to check my progress. (Well, not that often anyway!)
Although I've not had a chance to test it, CoDriver's meant to be even more
impressive with Street Planner, see the diagram
below lifted from Patrick's web site. CoDriver will work with French, German,
Dutch and Italian versions of Route Planner/Street Planner, but its menus and
speech largely remain in English.
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