To think that we're far too reliant on technology these days?

[Inadays]

Very embarassed and cross with myself at having ignored my gut instincts earlier today and listened instead to the man on the sat nav, trying to get me from A - B. I ended up driving approx. 50 miles out of my way to get three teenagers to a music festival. Turned out the sat nav had 'remembered' my previous trip (even though I hadn't saved it) and had happily taken me in a south-easterly direction (on the motorway when I knew I shouldn't really have been on the motorway) when I should have been going in the opposite direction!!

But I stupidly carried on driving and didn't question it for a long time until I suddenly twigged that I'd been on this road two weeks previously taking my DC to a school camp!

Has anyone else done something this stupid before, or is it just me? I knew I was wrong, but I blithely carried on listening to my Australian bloke on the sat nav telling me to put my sunnies on and not let the seagulls steal my chips!

I am in the perimenopause though which might explain my dim behaviour...

I followed mine for hours on the strangest route to a place I know quite well but just needed prompting for the right exit etc.
Turns out if leant it to a friend who had left it in cycling mode...

Our sat-nav directed us into a hedge.

Suppose it was a change of scenery...

Mine sends me off on all sorts of random detours and I do as I'm told even if I don't particularly know why! I must stop doing it lol
My ex dh is always telling me I don't have to do what it says

Ha I knew this would be about Sat Navs

I'm old enough to remember a time when we had to find our way ourselves, even online maps were in their infancy so didn't properly map a lot of the places I needed to go for work (industrial estates) so what I tend to do is follow the road signs until the last few miles, and then use the sat nav. I programme it before I set off, but generally ignore what it is saying until I am a few miles away (I have it on silent most of the time otherwise I end up arguing with it ).

We recently have a few new trainees at work and we have to take them to visit clients to show them the ropes.

There was one young man, that while he may have been impressed with my wide knowledge of our industry, years of experience and interesting anecdotoes, what really blew his mind and kept mentioning because he couldn't get over it, was that I could find my way around without a sat nav even though he knew it was a client that I had been visiting for years and the directions were fairly simple, ie follow motorway X until motorway Y and then go a few more junctions until junction Z and the client is a big site in a small village just off the motorway.

Kids today eh?

Barbara I still have no clue how to use an online map, and since my disaster yesterday am off to buy myself a good old up-to-date road atlas. The sat-nav is for the rest of the family from now on!!

Yes you are right OP. I am totally against satnav becoming part of the driving test. People should be able to find their way using a map. I don't deny satnav can be helpful especially if you are on your own, but it is not good when people have no idea where they are going. When I am travelling with people with satnav I tell them where they need to go before the satnav does, using only maps, road signs, and good geographical knowledge . Yes I occasionally get it wrong. But so does satnav.

Also mobiles. Now people are even more likely to turn up late than they were in my youth because they text to say they are running late. But if for some reason you don't have the person's mobile number you are in trouble!

We once took my late MIL somewhere which needed the satnav (her navigation being of the Turn left where the Post Office used to be school of practice when the Post Office was closed during the War) and she insisted I turn on the male voice because he "sounded more reliable".

I am totally against satnav becoming part of the driving test. People should be able to find their way using a map.

But navigating has never been part of the test, has it? The examiner directs you (thank goodness, as I'd have never passed my test with my terrible sense of direction otherwise!)

We set the sat nav to find us a Pizza Hut in a strange place and it took us wrong, up to a housing estate. It was only when we were debating knocking on the door of the house (clearly not a pizza but) and asking if there ever used to be one there that we looked at each other and had a WTF moment. This was a long time ago and I never use the bloody things now and I've got more sense!