UK telematics test track opens for business

’In 100m, turn right,’ says the confident voice of your satellite navigation system. You obey the command, take a right and end up in a dead-end street. Backing out, your satnav tells you to ’turn around where possible’ and reverse in again. You squint at your satnav display. Where does it think you are? You keep driving in defiance of the nagging voice urging you into a dirt track reserved for pedestrians. Completely lost, and in despair at modern technology, you rip the satnav from your windscreen and pull over.

It’s a scenario familiar to motorists up and down the country. You don’t have to look far to find a headline about the strange places satellite navigation systems have led unsuspecting drivers. A widely reported incident where a bouncy castle was delivered to an old people’s home was blamed on a satnav. Another case saw a US tourist who typed ’Windsor Castle’ into her system end up at a pub in Somerset. More seriously, in 2009, a BMW was left teetering on a 100ft cliff in Todmordern after following satnav direction down a Pennine footpath.