“We have another question here. “Is it legal or illegal to use a sat-nav in the car?”
Well sat-navs are incorporated and built into most cars these days and many people have got sat-navs on their phones and as accessories in the car, so no they’re not legal to use at all, but it depends what you mean by use.
If you’re using your sat nav to get from A to B, to confirm what speed you’re doing, because they tend to have the speed there, and find information as you’re driving along; there’s a railway crossing around the corner, we’re coming up to a motorway, and as a learner, you wouldn’t be allowed on the motorway.
You might be going past a river, so you see a river or a lake on the sat-nav. That’s going to tell you actually there may be flooded water ahead and so on and so forth. So, not only getting from A to B, but it’s a good source of information.
So yes, you want to use it. But the other sort of usage is what you shouldn’t be doing. You shouldn’t be pressing the buttons and going through the settings and the options, you shouldn’t be doing that sort of thing whilst you’re driving.
To go on a detour, to change your destination, don’t be doing any of that whilst you’re driving because that’s the distraction. It’s where the mistakes are made which is what precedes having a crash, so look at the screen for information.
A single tap I think many have got a single tap button where if you’re approaching a lot of congestion or you realise there’s a rpobelm ahead. You’ve heard something on the radio. So you can press a single button for the sat nav to get a detour, that sort of thing is alright. Just a single, occasioanl press, but it’s got to be at that level so, if you encounter a major situation, severe congestion etc, then a single button press is all that’s needed.
So it’s about minimising distractions and distractions lead to mistakes, mistakes lead to crashes. So use the sat nav by all means but don’t be fiddling with it while you’re driving.”
