Hardly goes by a week without a story of a driver running out of road or getting stuck in a narrow thoroughfare, all because the satellite navigation they are relying on has led them astray.
Things may not be as bad as a couple of years ago, when Apple released its own maps application and directed cars to non-existent bridges and into lakes. But in the United States, a survey by Michelin Travel Partners found drivers were misled an average of 4.4 times last year. Younger adults, more prone to gadget use and following mapping apps on their smartphones or tablets said they had been misdirected even more often – 6.3 times on average.
But even when everything works, technological crutches like GPS are making us not only worse drivers – they could also be making us stupid. Drivers relying solely on their navigational systems to get from here to there could be abandoning both spatial awareness and common sense.
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