UPDATE - New CoPilot Real RV Specific GPS App

Several weeks ago, I wrote and published here a two part article on the new CoPilot RV Specific app. I was very details about problems that the app had and that before the article was released I had contacted CoPilot about what was incorrectly happening with the app. At that time the company said that they would obtain the same phone that I have with the same Android version - 5.1 - and would test the app to see if they duplicated the problem. Briefly the problem was that after routing the app for the destination and then bringing the app out to begin driving the app was losing the GPS fix and could not reestablish it to begin the route - so the map did never followed the route while driving and just froze on the start location. A few weeks later I was contacted by CoPilot and was told to go to a special webpage that only I could open with a code provided to me and I was to download an update to the app. I did that. I installed the update and started my testing of Copilot RV all over again.

The update that I was provided fixed the problem. The app now reestablishes the GPS fix under the circumstances that it did not before and works as it should have originally. Despite the continuation of other problems the app has that I detailed in my two part article, the main problem - the app freezing and not routing was corrected. I would love to report to you all that all is well and recommend this app BUT I still cannot.

I reported to two contacts at CoPilot that the app was now working as it should. They were pleased. I then asked - each individually - if the update would now be released to the general public so that I might report to our many readers - and the many readers who have contacted me privately by email about the app - that the app now works and the update has fixed it. I was given no clear answer about this. The answers I received implied that the original app remains as it is and that I only received this update. The implication was that no one else would.

This is not good. There is nothing special about my Android phone. It is a recent Samsung Galaxy model with the new Android 5.1 OS (not the newest Android 6 but few phones have been released with that OS yet) on a major cell carrier. There is nothing different from the interface and workings of my phone from any of the Samsung Galaxy models.  The problem that I had - if it does not happen on all phones - should be happening on any of the Samsung Galaxy models with Android 5.1 - and that is a lot of phones. I do not understand why the update has not been released to their customers. I gave them ample opportunity to explain this to me. They chose not to. So I can only conclude that if you purchase this app - for the significant sum of $60 - you are taking a non-refundable chance that it will not work.

I have been using the app in the RV on several multiple state trips since my article. Problems that I had noted in the article about its POI listings and  about its routing are really a big problem. On two trips we were going to two different universities. Neither were in the POIs. Without the specific street address we would never have found these destinations using this app. Several times the app has routed us the wrong way down a one way street - of course, we did not make the turn - noticing the one way sign as we approached the corner. Someone paying attention only to the GPS - sure you are not supposed to do that but I know many who just do - would have found themselves in a big problem and in a big RV (or even a Class B) one that is not easily or safely corrected. This makes this app's routing dangerous and unreliable. One source of the problems is the newest maps that CoPilot has begun using as the car version of the app - CoPilot USA - updated to these same maps in the time that I had been testing the RV app - and they dropped a number of POIs and also that began o have routing problems in regard to streets it was routing on.

Big problems. I still do not recommend the CoPilot RV Specific GPS app. Plus I am not sure - at least until there is another map update - that I recommend any longer the CoPilot USA app that has an abbreviated RV profile.

I certainly hope that CoPilot reads this and will respond finally. I really liked CoPilot USA - before - and I had great hopes for CoPilot RV. Looking at the reviews of the RV app on Google Play they are not very good - I am not the only one that has had problems.