The days of the traditional road map are over — at least for young drivers.

Research has found that 18-24 year olds in the Huddersfield area have turned to smartphones and sat navs to help them get from A to B.

A shocking 86 per cent of young Huddersfield drivers said they would not feel confident relying on road signs to reach their destination, while 57 per cent admitted that they could not read a road map comfortably.

The survey, by Telenav GmbH, which has developed an offline sat nav app, Scout, has revealed that nationally, 45 per cent of 18-24 year olds use maps on their smartphones to navigate and 32 per cent are reliant on the internet to find their way.

Statistics from Telenav GmbH
Statistics from Telenav GmbH

More than a third of smartphone users said they would feel 'completely' lost without an internet connection — but 23 per cent of the UK offers no access to 3G.

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Telenav GmbH managing director Marcus Thielking said map reading skills were no longer passed down from parents and not included in driving tests.

He added: " With so many people now lacking confidence in reading maps or road signs, we can see how problems can arise when you lose connection and can’t access satnav on your smartphone.

"Services like this that were previously taken for granted suddenly become all but useless, which could leave people in a tight spot. It’s the reason we developed Scout."

Of course it's not just directional signs that road users need to read — but signs depicting the rules of the road too!

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