pilot droids only keep the ship flying when in hyper and you want to board a vehicle or so on that ship at the moment.
The other way is 'squading' ships. This works with certain types of fighters.
You can set yourself as pilot of like, 12 Y-ties. You'll fly only one but you can set the rest as NPC-flown. They will follow you wherever you go.
You'd have to arrange 3d party transport for what you need. Player interaction :D