New GPS research carried out in Taiwan suggests that drivers using in-car satellite navigation systems take less time to reach their destination, and they may drive more safely too.
One group of drivers were involved in the research each using in-car satellite navigation systems to reach a variety of urban and rural destinations they had never travelled to before. Another group of motorists were also asked to use paper maps to reach a similar set of mysterious destinations.
The Results
Satellite navigation assisted journeys were around 7 percent shorter in towns than map-guided ones, and 2 percent shorter on rural runs.
The researchers attached sensors to each car to track how often a driver made a course correction. The research found that map users changed course more times during a journey than satellite navigation users.
One of the researchers offered an explanation for these positive results, saying that a satellite navigation unit relieves the drivers' mental workload: "Sat-nav users could take to the road immediately without any additional mental workload other than initially loading the destination into the device." By contrast map users have to study street maps before they enter the car "And their mental workload continues throughout the journey".
