Almost one in four drivers have had an accident that they believe was caused by their sat nav, according to new research.
It shows that 14 per cent of motorists even use it to go to the shops and work which are daily journeys.
The research by touring caravan and motorhome insurance specialists, Caravan Guard, revealed 83 per cent of drivers admitted their sat nav had taken them in the wrong direction.
Some motorists also lack geographical knowledge if left without a map and directions, the study claims.
When asked to mark 16 cities on a map of the UK, 18 per cent placed more than half the cities in the wrong position:
- One in 10 of people mistook London for Cambridge (over 60 miles away)
- Over a third thought, Cardiff was Swansea (over 40 miles away)
- Half confused Ipswich with Norfolk (over 50 miles away)
- 15 per cent mistook Edinburgh for Aberdeen (with 128 miles between them)
This also led to drivers highlighting their lack of distance vs time estimates when it came to driving between popular city hotspots:
- Almost a third of drivers thought going from Manchester to Birmingham would take 55 minutes or less, which would only get them half of the journey south and at best to Stoke.
- Cardiff to Southampton is a journey that typically takes two and a half hours, but a fifth of people thought this would take five hours. In that time, drivers could get down to Dover and be on the ferry to Calais.
Neil Menzies, director of Caravan Guard, commented: “It’s truly astonishing the amount we rely on technology to take us from A to B, as just 20 years ago a map would be the only guidance when going on journeys.
"Now we even use sat navs to go to work or the shop, a trip we make multiple times a week.
“The lack of geographical knowledge outside of our own local areas shows that sat navs have become a huge part in directing us when on long journeys and many assume instant trust in their devices, despite so many admitting that they’ve caused an accident."
