The Gadget Agenda: The sat nav is dead and we all know what killed it

The other day I was invited to review a new sat nav. It was a swanky looking thing, with all sorts of tech bundled in, and I normally jump at the chance of reviewing car tech, but I hesitated for a moment before snapping it up. Because I had to wonder who on earth would buy it.

Coincidentally, my mother waved a gadget under my nose the other day she had found in the loft, convinced I'd be excited by the discovery. It was an old TomTom. Not one of the originals, perhaps a fairly recent one, but what use is it to me?

I can't understand why anyone would use a standalone sat nav these days. If you've got a car built after the 2010s, it's probably already got one, and it probably still works to some extent.

If you've got a car built in the 2020s, it's almost certainly got a sat nav, and it'll almost certainly get you from A-to-B without directing you into a canal.

But if you've got any car, from an old classic to a top-spec Bentley, you're probably using Google Maps or Waze. And you're probably either using that on your phone, or through Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

It's getting to the point now where some car manufacturers simply aren't bothering to add sat navs to their car screens because they know their customers aren't going to use them.

Why go to the bother and expense of designing a bespoke navigation system if people are just going to skip past it and log in through their smartphones?

If you haven't got a modern car with a modern screen, you can just mount your smartphone somewhere, or go one step further and buy a proprietary screen that gives you smartphone mirroring. That's what I do in my 2016 car, in fact.

My in-laws are constantly complaining that the sat nav in their 2024 BMW is useless, partly because it seems a thing that older people do - arguing with sat navs - but partly because it's just not as clever as using Google Maps.

I've tried, several times, to convince them to use the built-in wireless Apple CarPlay they have ready to go, but they're certain tech like that is witchcraft, too complicated, or it'll damage their phones.

Where are we heading with this, I wonder. Smartphones are already such a big part of our lives that I can see them becoming an integral part of the car, too.

Rather than link up through a wireless connection just to give us music and maps, the car could use the smartphone to identify the driver, then set up everything for us as we like it.

In fact, this is already happening, sort of. If you own a Tesla, for example, you don't have a key. It knows you're approaching because the Tesla app has already let the car know.

You just climb in, sit down, plonk your phone on a charging stand and it knows who's unlocked it, so your seat is already adjusting to your favourite position, the mirrors are moving, and it's tuning in to your radio station.

I can remember buying my first sat nav. In fact I think I still have it in a box somewhere, in my loft. It was a marvellous device and the technology behind it has changed how we live exponentially.

But it's now basically useless. I'll never again need a little box on my dashboard telling me where to go because, like so many things we used to have a separate device for, my phone does a much better job.