Microsoft Autoroute returns, but is it useful any more?
Microsoft’s Autoroute journey planning software has been an undisputed success over the last 20 years.
Now, though, it is up against a world of handheld GPS devices, traffic alerts, speed camera updates and a swathe of other resources that are at the fingertips of the modern traveller.
As such, when no new edition was released in 2007, we assumed it had hung up its walking boots.
Not so, as you can see from the release of Autoroute 2010, the benefits of which read a lot like the sort of specifications you would find on any in-car GPS device. Updated maps for Eastern and Western Europe cover 37 countries and over a million points of interest are included along with over five-million miles of navigable roads.
As per previous versions in the series, routes can be planned quickly and easily by entering an address, place name or postcode, with both maps and step-by-step directions returned. The biggest strength of the software over a GPS device is that it’s far easier to use, because you are planning a route on a larger display with mouse and keyboard control.
Pushpins can be added to mark places of interest on longer journeys and schedules can be created quickly and easily. You can drag and drop part of a route onto another section of road to create a detour or additional stop, points of interest are easier to browse and a detailed legend means it’s quick to find locations on a map.
Autoroute 2010 is also available with a Bluetooth GPS receiver to use a laptop computer as sat-nav device, including voice-directions, though we cannot see it appealing to many considering how impractical this might be to use on the move.
Since Autoroute is up against dedicated GPS devices, free online route-planners and services such as Google Earth, we are struggling to think of many situations where it would be useful.
If you prefer to plan a journey from home with this extra degree of control or are looking to take a laptop with you on an extended road-trip, the benefits may outweigh the inherent drawbacks, but in truth Autoroute offers little to modern traveller.
