Britain’s leading car renter has backed the Good Ski Guide’s warning to drivers not to rely on satellite navigation systems.
Despite the extensive detail provided by most sat navs, there are occasions where the GPS technology does not instruct drivers to take the most direct route or simply reaches an area that is not covered by GPS – leaving drivers without a map book lost.
It is worse for skiers because the sat navs can take you down what is little more than a dirt track – and covered in snow and ice.
Managing director of Carrentals.co.uk, Gareth Robinson, says: "Sat nav technology is very useful in helping drivers reach destinations with which they are unfamiliar, but there is a danger of motorists becoming too reliant on the technology and just blindly following any directions that are given, even if these go against their own sense of direction.
He told the Good Ski Guide: “While incidents of misdirection from GPS technology are limited, blindly following a sat nav, especially when this goes against your better judgement, can lead to a greater problem than a couple of wrong turns.
We at the Good Ski Guide were directed up to the Duffy Lake road in Canada’s wild and deserted mountains, instead of using the freeway.
We got there after surviving nightmare roads, rock avalanches and hairpins, with 20 degree steepness – and it took us four hours longer than the freeway would have!
