Road Atlas or Satanav in Race to the Finish?  

In a battle between old-fashioned brain-power and cutting-edge technology a popular satelilite navigation system was beaten by a passenger armed with a humble road atlas in a test race by Which? The consumer magazine said a road atlas, if combined with a decent human map reader, was the most efficient and reliable way of getting from A to B. Competing against the atlas was a Garmin Nuvi satnav unit, route-finding PC software Microsoft Autoroute 2006 and the government's official door-to-door travel website Transport Direct. Under test conditions the car using the atlas took 1 hour and 35 minutes over a planned route, comfortably ahead of the 1 hour and 43 minutes for the car directed by the 220 pounds Garmin Nuvi. The Microsoft Autoroute 2006-which retails for 45 pounds-took 1 hour and 49 minutes, while the Web site directed car finished in 2 hours and 19 minutes after a couple of mistakes along the way. The downside of the road atlas-cost 8 pounds- was the time it took to plan the journey beforehand and the lack of detail once in towns and cities. As for the satnav unit, while it beat the atlas as the safe option for solo drivers, it was deemed to be a disadvantage that one can't listen to music in case instructions are missed.