Longrider

Via Leg Iron, this rather stupid story about righteous fuckwits trying to blame satellite navigation for road traffic incidents.

Fears that sat-nav devices may pose a risk to motorists follow research which showed that 78 per cent of crashes were caused by driver inattention.

Now psychologists at Lancaster University and Royal Holloway, University of London are to examine what they described as the “potentially dangerous effects of ‘SAT NAV’ in-car navigation systems.”

Um, bollocks, frankly – although the righteous keep telling us that accidents are caused by driving fast. I do wish they would make their minds up. Although, to be fair, “minds” is probably over-stating it.

I’ve been using satnavs since the days when I hitched my Psion Series 5 to a Garmin hand held GPS. I had to pull over to do it, but it was a useful aid to map reading. I could find out quickly where I was on the map. The handlebar mounted systems that came next were a real boon. Reading a map on a motorcycle is a pain. A rolling map and voice prompts means that I can concentrate on the road without having to waste attention on navigation. So, if anything, the technology makes my ride or drive easier and, frankly, safer.

…now researchers want to examine the impact of other sources of distraction including sat-nav systems which have become increasingly popular in recent years.

Why? There is no need for such research. The SatNav is a really useful tool for those of us out on the road all day who have to find new places on a regular basis. I don’t need any research to tell me that it makes my life easier – I already know this. I certainly don’t need any research to tell me that it could potentially be a source of distraction if I started fiddling about with it while driving. I have common sense. That tells me all I need to know.

In the study, researchers will analyse how drivers handle the information they receive from sat-nav systems and how they respond to it.

Sigh… When the system tells me that I need to turn left in half a mile, I look for the junction and then turn left when I get there. I can do this without losing my concentration on the road. Indeed, having a voice prompt rather than have to look for road signs that might no be there or find somewhere to pull over and look at a map, means that I can do so more efficiently. I can fucking multi-task, after all.

“If we see any worsening of attention or memory performance while people are carrying out the navigation task, this might indicate that the navigation system imposes demands on the participant which could be dangerously distracting”, said Polly Dalton, one of the researchers involved in the project.

Oh, for fuck’s sake! And if one has a passenger reading a map giving directions? Jesus, H Christ on a pogo stick! Have these people nothing better to do? Don’t answer that – rhetorical question. As LI points out, we can see where this is going. The bansturbators are looking for their next target. Just when technology has produced something that I find really useful and makes my daily drive that much easier, these bastards think it is within their brief to take it away.

“By the end of these experiments, we will be able to provide clear measurements of the ways in which the use of in-car navigation systems might interfere with attention and memory performance.”

It doesn’t. What happens is that my attention is on the road. If a situation develops that requires more concentration, I forget the SatNav – realising that I have mentally switched it off after the situation has passed. That’s how the human brain operates – it prioritises.

It is estimate that around 14 million drivers now use satellite navigation systems and in 2008 a poll of 2,000 motorists showed that one in five had made them hesitate on a busy road.

I’ve been using them for a decade now and not once has it made me hesitate. In fact, the opposite is true. I am more positive, knowing exactly which junction I want.

According to the same survey, carried out by Direct Line insurance, one driver in 50 said sat-nav had either caused or nearly caused an accident.

Nope.

Sat-nav systems have also been held responsible for drivers suddenly swerving or turning.

Nope. Sometimes, the system cannot keep up with complex road junctions – or, more accurately, I make a mistake or see the junction I want just a little too late. I simply carry on, ignoring the voice prompts knowing that the system will reroute. That’s the beauty of automatic routing – taking a wrong turn just isn’t an issue.

However a spokesman for Tomtom, one of the market leaders in sat -nav devices, denied the technology was distracting drivers.

“We have had two pieces of independent research which show that satellite navigation aids driving behaviour.”

“The evidence is that people feel more in control, concentrate on the business of driving and are less stressed.”

Quite. My experience echos that of Tom Tom. And, I’m really enjoying getting to know my new Garmin 1690. Jolly good, it is, too.

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Please… If you are itching to hit the keyboard with a drive-by comment telling me that you can read a map, so don’t need a SatNav, kindly resist the temptation. I’m really not interested.

Via Samizdata, a jaw dropping quote from the BBC ethical man site. I quote it in full so that you can truly appreciate its sheer awfulness.

The one commment that I read that made most sense was the one about over population.
Frankly the sooner we can persuade the catholics, muslims, and other ‘faith zealots’ that breeding billions extra followers is not needed and is putting their lives in danger the better, then finally we might find preachers telling people to use condoms, the pill etc. to reduce their own output of offspring.
WE DO NOT NEED ANOTHER SINGLE HUMAN for at least the next 10 years! We don’t need them to provide for the old ones, we don’t need them to continue to hold unsustainably large number of humans in populations, we certainly don’t need them to avoid offending ‘God’ in whatever form he takes.
We DO need to reduce the human population DRASTICALLY, this one act will solve global warming, starvation, lack of medicines indeed most of the diseases. In a lot of respects I am saddened that the various pundits were so wrong about swine flu, the human population could do with a good 25% knocked out. Heres a nicer idea – restrict every woman to a single pregnancy, once she has had that then sterilize her, restrict every man to causing a single pregnancy, after that castrate him, stop ALL forms of artificial preganancy (test tube etc.) This way we will reduce the population – and quite quickly.

Now, I’m not going to get into the discussion about “ethical man’s” angst about the birth of his daughter. If he was really that concerned about the impact she will have on the planet, he’d have worn a condom or his partner would have popped a pill. They didn’t, so we can assume that “ethical man” doesn’t quite live up to his claimed ethics, and write him of as the rampant hypocrite that is the case with most watermelons.

But Dave Hitchman – the vile moron who made the above comment – is worthy of rather more than mere dismissal as a hypocrite. He is a reminder of the insane hatred of mankind that exists in the world. If you ever wondered about the type of people who could stand by and watch millions going to their deaths in gas chambers, then look no further. It is the Dave Hitchmans of this world that allow such evil to perpetuate.

Sure, there’s a discussion to be had about population and resources – although you can forget about the carbon footprint bollocks. Sure there’s a discussion to be had about sustainability in the third world. Sure, there’s a discussion to be had about religious fundamentalism that prevents the use of contraceptives. But for someone to wish for a pandemic that will wipe out a quarter of the population takes misanthropy and turns it into an art form.

Presumably Dave Hitchman isn’t including himself in that 25% – these arseholes never do. It’s always the poor and dispossessed who need wiping out. Or better still, the western middle classes. But not Dave Hitchman, we can be sure about that. And, presumably, Dave Hitchman will be nipping down to the local hospital to get himself castrated. No? Why ever not? Surely with his ethics, he will want to lead by example? Certainly the sooner his genes are removed from the gene pool the better for humanity as a whole. I do, however, find it amusing in a strange way that this man can accuse others of zealotry and come out with such hateful zealotry himself. The religion is different, that’s all.

I am a peaceful person. I have never owned a gun, nor wanted to (although I can shoot reasonably well). But, I have to say, Perry’s solution to this is appropriate:

A far better response, and dare I say a more ethical one, would be “your policy will indeed reduce the world’s population because people like me will put a 10mm hole between the eyes of totalitarian scum like you.”

Indeed. I do still have my bow. So a well aimed arrow will do as well, I trust?