Friday, February 24, 2012
The siren-like call of the sat-nav
Most of us would probably be quite happy to have a sat-nav, if we haven’t got one already.
But beware!Their voices can lead you astray as surely as a siren’s call, and in total sat-navs have reportedly cost £203million in vehicle repairs in the last 12 months alone.
The head of car insurance at Confused.com stated, “Our research has shown that the sat-nav is not always the blessing it was once hailed to be and, increasingly, motorists appear to be citing the device as a source of frustration and danger.”
The problem is that a combination of out-of-date maps on the devices and drivers relying too heavily on the directions given by the gadget is resulting in crashes which could easily have been avoided.
Although it is hoped that a summit set to be held in March this year will solve a lot of the navigational errors being suffered my motorists, many sat-nav problems can be resolved by drivers paying more attention to the road and looking at their intended route on a real map before leaving.
The art of true navigation is being lost, let’s reacquaint ourselves with it.
Photo © Unhindered by Talent via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: car insurance, Confused.com, crash, device, directions, gadget, map, motorists, navigational error, road, sat-nav, summit, vehicle repairs
Friday, January 6, 2012
Is there an end in sight for sat-nav misdirection?
It’s not unusual to hear about outrageous sat-nav blunders, and although I don’t use mine too often, there have been a couple of times where I have had to use my common sense and follow road signs rather than the little arrow on the screen.
However, it has been reported that the Government has plans to tackle those misguided drivers who end up in compromising situations due to a technological error. It will be discussing the out-of-date directions at a summit.
According to the Department for Transport, it can sometimes take months for road updates to be delivered to sat-navs from local authorities, and misdirection has been known to land lorries in side streets and cars into swamps.
At last, this may mean the sat-nav problems are finally addressed and sorted out! Mind you, it’s important that drivers are always careful to think about where they are steering rather than blindly relying on advice from their navigation system.
Photo © Tim Green aka atoach via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: directions, lorries, navigation, road signs, sat-nav, summit, vehicles