text: Intermediate 
  Former president of the Royal Institute of Navigation Roger McKinlay says that our use of GPS (global positioning system) technology could be damaging our innate ability to  nd our way. If we do not look after them, our natural navigation abilities will deteriorate as we rely more and more on technology, he wrote.
  McKinlay believes we need huge investment before navigation systems will be good enough for technologies such as autonomous vehicles to take off. In the meantime, he says, we need better research into systems for navigation. Also, children should be encouraged to learn how to  nd their way around by more traditional means. Schools should teach navigation and map reading as life skills, he wrote.
  According to Ofcom (the Of ce of Communications), around 66% of adults in the UK owned a smartphone in 2015, up from 39% in 2012  so GPS technology is widely available. But McKinlay, a satellite communication and navigation consultant, believes that we should be careful not to leave our navigational needs to our devices. If we dont practise using our navigation skills, well lose them he wrote.
  Not many scienti c studies have explored the issue, but research from 2009 supports his ideas. We looked at a group of current London taxi drivers and a group of London taxi drivers that had been retired for about four years, said neuroscientist Dr Hugo Spiers of University College London, who is an author of the study. The results showed that the retired taxi drivers performed worse on navigation tests than the current taxi drivers. We were able to show that their abilities dropped away if they werent using their knowledge.
  Spiers also believes there is a danger in relying on technologies like GPS but he points out that the biggest problem is that technologies can lead drivers into dangerous situations. One of the deaths caused by satnavs (satellite navigation devices) was of a driver whose car plunged into a lake in Spain in 2010. There is a genuine potential danger in relying on a satnav, said Spiers. But the health risk of not using your brain effectively is not known.
  The way in which navigational technology is used could also affect its impact on our own abilities, says Spiers. Audio instructions to drivers remove the need to think about navigation, he says, but the use of smartphone apps as digital maps is very different. When you use a digital map, you have to think hard about where you are going and interact with this device, he said. The modern technology isnt just dumbing us down completely."
  McKinlay believes there have to be big improvements in navigation technologies before futuristic scenarios of driverless cars and smart cities become a reality. For really important jobs  like landing aircraft or navigating aircraft  GPS is still not good enough, he said.
  Spiers believes the development of arti cial intelligence based on machine learning could lead to a new wave of navigational aids, but McKinlay is sceptical. We will see ever-smarter machines which are very, very task speci c, but the big breakthrough will be when they understand what we are thinking and what we want to achieve, he said.
  Ultimately, McKinlay believes, its essential that humans remain able to take control of their navigation. Do you really want to encourage people to a point where, when it disappears or when the battery goes  at, they are in total shock and can do nothing? he said. Technology isnt magic  it is just a tool.