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With new roads, new junctions and new roundabouts appearing all the time, no satnav system can ever be fully up to date. Logically, a system could incorporate a junction it thinks is opening in, say, October 2007, but the satnav on your dash can’t know for sure when the junction actually opens. Does it offer two alternative routing options and let you choose?

Imagine the confusion when you hear ‘If the B1234 is opened, take the second exit, if not, take the third exit’. Of course that’s not feasible. So it has to wait ‘till the new junction is operational. By which time satnav systems are being sold with the old data built in, and it takes a while for the new data to filter through. This leaves drivers having to take educated – or not so educated – guesses about what to do for the best. Possible panic could ensue at difficult or crucial junctions. Crunch!

We’ve all seen stories in the press of satellite navigation systems taking people up muddy tracks or roads covered in ice so that they need to be rescued by tractors. Not, perhaps pile-up inducing, but hardly the safest way to go about getting from A to B let alone the quickest, or the route least likely to cause damage to your vehicle, your pride and your bank balance.

In these situations the routing software is using the information it has been given by the data providers. A road goes from a point to another point, and information about it being really mushy or icy because of recent weather conditions is not part of the data. There may well be a safer, less icy or mushy road to take, but finding it is down to your own judgement and not your satnav system. Blindly follow the instructions and you could be in for another crunch.

Usability is crucial with satellite navigation as with every other bit of tech aimed at people I’ve ever come across.

The ideal for satnav is for the driver never to touch their device while their vehicle is in motion, nor to give its screen more than a glance. But sometimes both are necessary. You want to hear a spoken instruction repeated; you’d like to check the direction of the next turn; you want to see some of that fancy information the system gives you such as the direction of travel, elevation, estimated time of arrival. Looking at that little arrow showing your progress along the road can be mesmerising. Don’t get caught or, you’ve guessed it - crunch!

We are only now really emerging from the early adopter phase for satellite navigation systems. In the early days many satellite navigation users were map fans and/or gadget fans and didn’t necessarily expect their new navigation device to be perfectly reliable.

As the user base widens non geeky types might not know or care how their satnav works, and, quite rightly, expect it to be totally reliable. They might not even carry a map in the car, something the RAC seems quite upset about.

I’d be prepared to bet that many current users of satnav just blindly expect their device to know best, and why shouldn’t they? That’s why they’ve bought – something that will route them from A to B. Product boxes don’t contain disclaimers saying ‘some roads may not be on the system, weather conditions are not taken into account, we may not always know how many junctions are on a roundabout, some roads are not included……’ .

If this all sounds like a bit of a downer on satnav systems, it isn’t meant to be. It is just that I don’t believe that of themselves they can make you a safer driver.

Understanding the rules of the road, obeying the speed limit, being aware of other drivers, looking and planning ahead, these are the things that can make you a safer driver. Satnav systems are a navigation aid – a modern equivalent of the printed map – and that is all.

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