When sat nav goes wrong

Even the most sophisticated technology can occasionally send you up a blind alley

Written by Jonathan Parkyn

Computeract!ve, 22 Nov 2006

For all their space-age wizardry and technological achievement, satellite-navigation systems are not immune from giving the occasional bum steer. The main culprit in these instances would appear to be out-of-date map data.

Take the case of Swansea football club, for example. Older sat-nav devices have reportedly been sending fans and even visiting away teams on a wild goose chase by directing them to the club’s old ground at Veitch Field, rather than the new Liberty Stadium.

Perhaps more worrying is the example of the ambulance driver who apparently took almost two hours to deliver a young girl with head injuries to hospital thanks to a GPS device that led the vehicle on a detour via the narrow winding roads. Drivers of larger vehicles and those towing caravans should also note that sat-nav devices may direct them through width-restricted roads.

This article is part of a group test of satellite-navigation devices.