How Safe Is Your Satnav?

14 June 2007

Media Invitation from the RIN

We’ve all read the horror stories: ‘Satnav leads driver onto level crossing’, ‘Ambulance follows satnav up narrow alleyway’, ‘Driver directed into River Avon…’

The rapid expansion of in-car satellite navigation technology has been a boon to most drivers, but for some, it seems to have replaced the driver’s own commonsense and instincts. So has the satnav revolution turned drivers into obedient zombies? And what is the satnav industry itself doing to ensure that systems are safe to use, today and in the future? To find out, there’s only one place to be:

Driven To Distraction?
A one-day seminar hosted by the Royal Institute of Navigation.
Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AT
26 June, 9.30-4.30

The RIN is bringing experts together from across the industry to answer key questions about the role and the implementation of in-car satnav systems in the 21 st century.

Find out:

• Why satnav development and safety is a vital 21 st century political issue in a talk by The Right Honourable Owen Paterson MP, Conservative Shadow Minister for Transport
• What the satnav customer really wants – and needs – in a presentation from Sheila Rainger from the RAC Foundation
• How to avoid deskilling the driver by listening to the Institute of Advanced Motorists’ Peter Rodger
• How well – or poorly – current satnav systems actually work , according to David Evans of Which?
• The latest news on the Department for Transport consultation on In-Vehicle Information Systems from Alan Stevens of the Transport Research Laboratory
• Best practice for satnav installation from Tracy Ross of the Ergonomics and Safety Research Institute
• The role of the mapping company in developing safe satnavs, by Tom Satterthwaite of Ordnance Survey and
• The need for cross-industry co-operation to ensure the future safety of satnav technology, and more.

Attendance is free to the media, but please contact RIN Press Officer Tony Fyler at editor@rin.org.uk or on 020 7591 3133 to confirm, or arrange specific interviews.

Images will be available on the day.