"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4

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Sat 15 Apr 2017 11:06
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - FoxyJukebox

This has not been thought through. Surely newer drivers should FIRST be tested on manual route reading skills from a map?

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Sat 15 Apr 2017 11:39
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - brum

So, strictly speaking, if they touch it while the engine is running, they instantly fail, get 6 points on their licence, a £200 fine and have your licence revoked! Any insurance will by default be cancelled and be impossibly expensive to reinstate.

Great idea....not

Edited by brum on 15/04/2017 at 11:46

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Sat 15 Apr 2017 14:41
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - oldroverboy.

The current generation of smartphone Kids will have no problem using a sat-nav, but driving a car is not like playing a video game. Hit something and there will be consequences.!

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Sat 15 Apr 2017 15:36
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - RobJP

This has not been thought through. Surely newer drivers should FIRST be tested on manual route reading skills from a map?

Why should they be tested on map reading skills, were you when you took your driving test ?

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Sat 15 Apr 2017 16:06
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - Smileyman

This has not been thought through. Surely newer drivers should FIRST be tested on manual route reading skills from a map?

Why should they be tested on map reading skills, were you when you took your driving test

It is the ability to drive and follow instructions from sat nav on test, presumably with the route programmed in before the journey starts..... next this will be the excuse for reduced road signage, the likes of me have had sat nav for perhaps 10 years, with 25 years of paper map usage and reading road signs before that.

Also to come will be dropping of how to turn on the lights or windscreen wipers because these functions are automated on so many new cars.

Edited by Smileyman on 15/04/2017 at 16:07

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Sat 15 Apr 2017 17:57
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - hillman

I wonder if the author of this has thought it through. I read recently, and it backed up what I was told years ago, that anything in the windsreen that blocks the driver's view of the road causes a fail in the MOT. If one is concentrating on the traffic on the motorway, for instance, it is quite easy to miss the 'voice' direction. The thought of one having to look down in speeding traffic to read instructions from a SatNav that is fitted in the dash is not good.

It is like having a screen on the dash that the driver has to go through a menu to adjust the ventilation. I trust that the driver will stop to do this, but on the motorway... ? It's akin to using your mobile phone to send a text message.

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Sat 15 Apr 2017 19:18
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - Terry W

Map reading skills are largely obselete - sad if you are over 50 and of no consequence if you are below 30.. Standard sat nav will be increaing common on all new vehicle. But the test should cover:

- only setting the sat nav when stationary or test failure

- test should include review of route plausibility - route taken and journey length. Not sure this would be a failure issue but would weed out the numpties who blindly miskey a destination only realising 20 miles into the journey that it normally only takes 15 mins.

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Sat 15 Apr 2017 19:43
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - RT

When is satnav accuracy going to match the growing dependence on them - and will it become mandatory to update the satnav maps regularly?

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Sat 15 Apr 2017 19:58
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - Cymrogwyllt

I still use the maps on my early Garmin one (£900 a pop satmav early). If I'm in a hurry I follow the newer built bypass signs etc and ignore the sat nav. If however I follow the satnav set to shortest route I've found many interesting places to see/visit.

Satnav is a tool available for use. A wrokman uses the tool, the tool does not use the wrokman

Edited by Cymrogwyllt on 15/04/2017 at 20:00

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Sat 15 Apr 2017 21:22
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - Theophilus

A wrokman uses the tool, the tool does not use the wrokman

Assuming Cymrogwyllt is Welsh, I fed this into Google Translate, but I'm none the wiser!

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Sat 15 Apr 2017 21:31
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - oldroverboy.

Cymro gwyllt = wild welshman.

from a welseezi.. (welshman in arabic) cannot post the arabic characters..

Edited by oldroverboy. on 15/04/2017 at 21:36

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Sat 15 Apr 2017 21:35
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - focussed

What is actually changing in the way the driving test is carried out in December this year is this;-

1 - The independent driving time during the test will increase to 20 minutes from 10 minutes - now using a sat nav supplied and set up by the examiner.

2 - Most tests will involve following directions from a sat nav - but one in five tests won't - use traffic signs instead.

3 - Two of the current manoeuvres are being binned:-

The reverse around a corner to the left and the turn in the road.( In most urban surroundings it is increasingly difficult to find a location suitable to carry these manoeuvres out safely - It was bad enough 8 years ago when I was instructing - must be darn near impossible now)

The candidate will be asked to carry out one manoeuvre from the following list of three;-

A - Parallel park on the left behind an existing car

B - Park in a bay, either drive in and reverse out or reverse in and drive out ( only carried out at the test centre if it has a car park - some haven't)

C - Pull up on the right hand side of the road - reverse for two car lengths and then rejoin the traffic stream on the left.

4 - Answer a "show me"question while driving -such as "how would you wash the windscreen using the washers and wipers" or "how to demist the rear screen" etc.

My comment on manoeuvre C - "Examiner's guaranteed fail if carried out on a busy road"

Edited by focussed on 15/04/2017 at 21:37

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Sat 15 Apr 2017 22:01
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - Matt@

as the dad of a 18 yr old daughter with 9 mths driving experience I can tell people that lack of danger awareness and inability to concentrate is what causes alot of accidents with young drivers. My daughter went out for a drive one evening, hit a sharp bend on a country road at around 40mph without realising it was there, lost control of the car (spinning and zig zagging) which ended up nose up to a tree with very minimal damage and she was uninjured - how different this could have been! I was not surprised at this happening as I had spent countless hours on the road with her practicing and knew her appraoch to driving.. In order to observe sat nav it means taking eyes off the road and consequent loss of concentration. Sat nav should be banned for young drivers until they have basic driving experience under their belt. How about they replace sat nav seesion with a hard hitting film using real ilfe (and gory) footage of how things can go terribly wrong behind the wheel!!!

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Sat 15 Apr 2017 23:37
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - focussed

There are many driving actions which require the driver to look away from the road.- not just sat navs. If set up properly, with route up not north up, a sat nav can be a handy guide on a road that you haven't driven on before if set to the minimum scale.

That's not to say you should drive with your nose in the sat nav, but the odd glance can show where the road goes after the next bend etc.

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Sun 16 Apr 2017 11:23
"L drivers to take Sat Nav Test etc"-reports 15/4 - FoxyJukebox

Yes indeed--route plausability is a key consideration. Most of my driving is local and I thus have a massive knowledge of the quickest, easy, safe, fastest, traffic avoiding routes at my disposal built up over many years.

I have lost count of the number of sat nav users with sad faces outside my house on the road asking me where xx High Street is only for me to tell them it's four miles up the other way.

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