Sat-navs could affect motorists' driving ability

London, June 7 (ANI): Satellite navigation systems on vehicles can not only sometimes send motorists the wrong way but also impair driving, a new study has suggested.

Researchers at London University's Royal Holloway and Lancaster University tested motorists in a car simulator.

The study found motorists did not drive as safely when they were trying to concentrate on the directions given.

While they could cope with simple instructions, they started to swerve, speed up or fail to notice pedestrians if they had too much information.

Volunteers were set tasks by a computer, which imitated the instructions given by a vehicle's satellite navigation system.

Lead researcher Polly Dalton, from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, told the BBC that the gadgets needed to be kept simple.

"People are capable of following spoken instructions in a car and it's actually a really good way of presenting information to them," she said.

"It's important not to make those directions too complicated because that runs the risk of asking them to keep too much information in mind when they are also trying to concentrate on the driving task," she noted.

But she added that listening to instructions was still safer than looking at a map.

Lancaster University's Dr Pragya Agarwal said the research could help sat-nav design to be more effective and user-friendly in the future. (ANI)