Once CoPilot is started, it gives a friendly welcome announcement using the text-to-speech system. After a moment, it states your current location and that it's ready to escort you to a new destination. CoPilot obtains your current location from the optional GPS receiver Clarion sells for their AutoPC. CoPilot appears to require a GPS, and this makes sense. Without a GPS, CoPilot would be functionally reduced to the Directions application that comes standard on the Auto PC.

Selecting a destination
To select a destination CoPilot allows you to choose from several sources: A street address, cross street, point of interest, the Auto PC address book, a Favorites list, a destination transmitted via infrared from an H/PC or P/PC address book, or the Pocket Streets program. Selecting a destination is definitely something you should do with your vehicle parked. It involves traversing some menus, entering text and reading the screen. I find address book the easiest to use but just entering a street address is pretty painless.

When entering an address you will be prompted for a city or zip code. If you enter a city, CoPilot's search for your destination address can be considerably longer than if you specify a zip code. You can enter partial city names and CoPilot will bring up a list to choose from which can reduce time entering an address. Once the destination is selected, CoPilot does some work then prompts you to hit Enter to get directions. This allows you to go back and reenter an address if they made a mistake before computing the route of travel. Hit Enter and about 30 to 60 seconds later, CoPilot has computed a route to your destination.

Road trip
Once you have pressed Enter and the route is calculated, CoPilot automatically comes up and reads you the first maneuver of your route. If you want to review the route, it has computed for you before you start, you can hit the pound (i.e., "#") key and review the directions step by step before you begin your journey.

During your journey you can view your route in one of two ways, turn-by-turn or moving map mode. Turn-by-turn shows you the upcoming maneuver and how far it is until you need to make that maneuver. As you approach the maneuver, CoPilot anticipates the upcoming maneuver and speaks the instructions to you. It also tells you approximately how far you have to go, in hundereds of feet, until the maneuver must be executed. An alternative view is moving map mode. This draws a map of the area you are travelling in on the Auto PC's display, as well as an indication of where your vehicle is on the map, and the next maneuver you must execute. It also warns of approaching maneuvers and gives instructions on what maneuver to perform.

dDrive-time feedback is where CoPilot really shines. Even though CoPilot uses only GPS in identifying your vehicle's location, it uses a proprietary map-matching algorithm, which locates the vehicle on the map with impeccable accuracy. I prefer using CoPilot in moving map mode and was totally amazed at how it was able to locate my vehicle accurately even on closely spaced roads. Given that all consumer-level GPS systems can report location with an error of over a 1000 feet, I expected CoPilot to make mistakes as to which street I was on when driving though convoluted residential housing developments. But, much to my surprise, I could not get CoPilot confused as to my location. This bit of software genius is the work of TravRoute's Per Kreipke and Mike Bodden.