Male motorists find solace with sat-nav guide

MANY men will never ask for directions — especially from a woman.

But it seems they don’t mind asking their sat-nav, and may actually need more guidance than women do when it comes to reaching their final destination.

An AA poll of about 4,000 sat-nav users has found that a quarter of men use the device on a regular basis compared with just 14% of women.

While it is worrying to think our menfolk really don’t know their way round, worse still is the revelation that 10% of people reported having a near miss or collision whilst using sat-nav.

And it seems the sat-nav may be the source of some tension too between couples, with 40% of those surveyed admitting to a tiff with their partner or passenger over it.

Another reported mishap was ending up in completely the wrong place. Almost 30% of those surveyed said they had either accidentally mis-programmed the device going drastically off-course, or had accidentally set it to the “avoid motorways” setting and ended up taking the scenic route.

Director of AA Motor Insurance John Farrell cautioned that sat-nav isn’t infallible and it seems sometimes you have to dust down a trusty old-fashioned map. “We have had stories of drivers making the most ridiculous mistakes because of blindly following the device’s directions. In fact in Britain one local authority even had to put up special signs to warn people not to trust their sat-nav,” he said.

Indeed, just this week two tourists had to be rescued after becoming stranded in the Sally Gap in Co Wicklow.

The pair had followed a sat-nav system which directed them to drive through the Sally Gap after leaving Glendalough en route for Dublin.

Mr Farrell urged people to download the most up-to-date road maps as 54% of existing sat-nav owners have never downloaded updates according to the AA Motor Insurance poll.

This is despite a number of key infrastructural projects, such as the completion of our motorway network, coming on stream in 2010.