Sat Nav has become such a keystone of drivers’ lives that they are wasting more time not than when they used physical maps.

Sat Nav, or satellite navigation in longer form, has been many people’s Godsend to arriving on time and safely. To others, such as this writer, it is the work of the devil.

For those who love the road, be that driving, riding or hitch-hiking, the beauty of travelling is getting lost. No advance warnings, just the joy of adventure and sometimes getting it wrong. To err is wonderfully human, to get lost is divine.

Nothing is more life-sucking than Sat Nav. From the new car on the road whose driver lurches into the traffic while obviously setting their Sat Nav to the oblivious u-turns down OBVIOUSLY wrong roads, this technology has been the bane of driverkind.

Now, a new report has reinforced its total lack of use, sense and relevance. According to a mytaxi survey of 2,000 UK drivers, Sat Navs have turned us into a nation of unthinking, unquestioning ‘zombie’ drivers.

More than a whole day each year (29 hours) is spent cluelessly travelling either the long way or the wrong way to our destinations after relying on electronic guides, which are now used by 76% of domestic motorists. More refreshingly, a total of 67% said they had a ‘love-hate relationship’ with their GPS route-finders.

In my case, there is no love-hate ambivalence. I HATE the stupid things.

Worryingly, more than half (52%) of those surveyed admitted they completely ‘switch off’ once the Sat Nav is leading the way and give little attention to road-signs and landmarks. This zombification has led to one fifth (20%) confessing they have lost the ability to navigate back home from locations to which they initially drove using their Sat Nav.

The study also found that we talk to this dumb machines. Sat nav slip-ups have led to 47% of us having a verbal disagreement with a device and 31% admitting to shouting at the machine as if it was a real person. One in 20 drivers have ripped the gizmo from the car and trashed it, an action I can only salute.

Moreover, 26% of drivers admit their navigation skills have declined since they began using an electronic route planner, which only proves that using Sat Nav makes you an idiot.

Told you so. Even using the upper-case of ‘Sat’ and ‘Nav’ as two separate words is a pain in the arse. #destroygizmo

* The research of 2,000 British drivers was carried out by 3Gem Research and Insights, as commissioned by mytaxi