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Misleading headlines

Wrong turn: Misleading sat navs have caused £203million of damage to cars in past year
Misleading satnavs have caused more than £200 million worth of damage to cars in the past 12 months, it was revealed today.
Wrong. The damage has been caused by drivers mindlessly following instructions from their sat-navs without looking at what's going on around them and spotting potential hazards.

This is not the fault of the sat-navs.

4 Comments:

Richard said...

It's an exact parallel of the 'guns don't kill people, people kill people' argument. We have this awe of technology, as if it's some kind of magic from the gods. If the satnav says turn left, even though it's into a road narrower than your car and you can see that it is, you still have to do it because the technlology says so.

Satnavs are machines like any other. There to help, not to command. We need to get away from the idea that we always do as we are told, but that's another issue altogether.

TheBoilingFrog said...

Amen to that.

Nothing more irritating than hearing stories of sat navs 'forcing' drivers to get stuck in a field somewhere.

Mick Anderson said...

There are several new roads that I use which my 2011 satnav disc doesn't know about. The screen shows me tearing over what appears to be open field.

I wish that those writing the code had enough of a sense of fun to write the "you're going cross-country, mind that tree" message, acompanied by electronic eyes covered by electronic fingers on the screen.

Bucko said...

Richard - Yes, the machines are slowly taking over.
When people begin to accept that technology should be used to track your movements, take pictures of you, order you to leave the area or punish you for breaking a speed limit, they will start to see it as the overlord whose soothing female voice is giving orders that must be obeyed.

Mick - I'm surprised that doesn't just blow the thing up, a bit like the technology that Captain Kirk talks to.