Have We Become Too Reliant On Satellite Navigation Systems?

A recent report from the Royal Academy of Engineering has labelled UK drivers as dangerously dependent on satellite navigation. So does this mean that we are now becoming a nation of robots, who are only able to take instructions from a computer, rather than reading a map for ourselves?

According to research published in The Daily Mail, almost two out of three people said they are over-reliant on the satellite navigation systems and four out of five 18 to 30-year-olds confessed to an inability to navigate without electronic guidance. Not surprisingly 53 per cent of over-60s are still comfortable with conventional maps – showing that the fascination with electronic devices is very much a new phenomenon.

While 83 per cent of participants owned a road map, only a third carried one in their vehicles all the time, the survey of 2000 volunteers for budget website NetVoucherCodes.co.uk found.

Steve Barnes from NetVoucherCodes.co.uk said: “Our over reliance on satnavs is worrying as they are not always correct 100 per cent of the time.

‘We’ve all seen the pictures of lorries wedged in narrow streets or heard the tales of cars being diverted hundreds of miles purely to avoid one bit of road.

‘Map reading is a valuable skill and one which should not be lost especially amongst our younger generations. We have to remember that technology cannot be counted on all of the time.’

The problem was highlighted recently when a Belgian woman took an astonishing 1,800 mile detour through six countries after her car navigation system allegedly went wrong.

Sabine Moreau, 67, had intended to drive to Brussels from her home in Solre-sur-Sambre to pick up a friend from the train station – a journey of just 38 miles. But she took a wrong turn and eventually ended up 900 miles away in Croatia – she didn’t stop to question her satnav until two days later when she realised that she may be in a different country.

Are satnavs safe to use while driving?

Although the use of handheld mobile phone devices was outlawed some 10 years ago, the use of satnavs when we are driving is still perfectly legal – despite the fact that you often have to touch the screen to input your next location.

The results of an experiment carried out by Lancaster University and Royal Holloway, University of London, suggests that a drivers’ performance was affected when listening to satnav-style directions while driving.

During the experiment volunteers were set a number of tasks, similar to those given by a satnav.

The results showed that people tended to drive faster when they were set some complicated instructions, with increased steering variations, as well as being less likely to notice pedestrians who might be about to cross the road.

Dr Polly Dalton, from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, said: “What is interesting is that people were able to follow one simple instruction without any significant impact on their driving.

“But as soon as they had to remember a compound instruction, consisting of two sequential directions, we began to notice a difference in their driving ability.

Despite a huge increase in ownership of satellite navigation equipment, recent figures from the Department of Transport show that deaths and injuries on the road are at their lowest in years –particularly car accidents.