Don’t let the SatNav drive you up the wall!

Its not the first time that Gadgets and Gizmos has brought you news of daft SatNav users (nor will it probably be the last), Matt in July 2008 brought you the sorry tale of ‘Slaves to SatNav’, which no doubt brought some superior smirks from the ‘SatNav non believers’. The latest tale of SatNav disaster is in respect of Robert Jones who managed to follow his SatNav directions to the letter and end up teetering on the edge of a Pennine cliff in his BMW! It took nine hours for the car to be recovered and Police have now decided to take the matter further and have charged Mr Jones with driving without due care and attention.

If you have been considering buying a SatNav but are put off by the bad press associated with incidents such as these or sarcastic goading from male friends or relatives then don’t worry. Millions of these devices have been sold and are used daily by most drivers without any problem, other than maybe taking the odd wrong turn. If you use the SatNav in the correct manner then they are a useful prompt to tell you that your next turn is due or will provide you with an instant alternative route if there are major road holdups. They are a useful aid to driving and should not ever be followed if the road ahead looks like it presents dangers, if you follow all visible road warning and direction signs, read the road correctly and of course use common sense then you will not encounter any problems. There will always be the odd car driver who has a mishap, such as driving their car through the side of a house after a momentarily lack of attention but that doesn’t mean we all do. A SatNav will provide you with easy access to route information both here and abroad and can be a valuable tool to assist the competent driver. Don’t feel ashamed or embarrassed to buy one they are a fantastic aid to driving and never again will you need to drive around in the dark trying to find a passing pedestrian to ask for assistance (unless you are a kerb crawler).

For the very small minority of SatNav users who rely on the device too much (some even seem to think that they drive the car for them) then it is clearly bound to end in disaster and quite frankly they should really not be allowed to leave the house without being wrapped in bubble wrap and with a police escort!