UK requires navigation skills

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1310400/Test-routes-taken-offline-overhaul-learner-drivers.html New driving test to steer learners off satnav habit

By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 12:20 AM on 11th September 2010

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Driving tests are being changed to force learners to demonstrate they can navigate amid concerns that motorists are becoming too dependent on satnavs.

Under the current test, learners are told when to turn left and right by the examiner.

Now all learner drivers will have to prove they can drive independently. Overhaul: Learner drivers will now be told to make their own way to local landmarks without having seen the route online

Overhaul: Learner drivers will now be told to make their own way to local landmarks without having seen the route online

From October 4 they will need to show they can drive without guidance for ten minutes of the 30-minute practical test. They will be asked to navigate alone from A to B and follow street signs to a designated point.

They will not be failed for a wrong turn unless they commit a driving fault.

The Driving Standards Agency, which wants novice drivers to be able to drive without obeying satnav order, will also no longer publish test routes because learners were memorising them from the internet.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1310400/Test-routes-taken-offline-overhaul-learner-drivers.html#ixzz0zCJF0A4j

interesting. when was the last time a driving test was changed in the US, period?

When was the last time a driving test actually tested whether or not someone could drive.

Strizzo wrote: interesting. when was the last time a driving test was changed in the US, period?

Since when does one exist? It is a parking test.

Driving test or operating test ?

I have always maintained that there are d--- few drivers but a h--- of a lot of operators. Of course, I am one of the few.

The UK Taxi drivers have to go through extensive schooling called "The Knowledge"...maybe some of that should trickle down.

Interesting....under these tests "new drivers will be required to make their way independently to local landmarks".

In the U.S. you are told that if you change addresses, as in a move into a new state, you have 30 days to get a new license in the new state. When I move permanently back to Fl. I will be getting a new license....luckily this isn't the U.K. as it's a tossup as to whether I know the local landmarks in Jacksonville well enough to get to them without a bit of help.

I've been driving for nearly 40 years, and only had to take 2 driving tests. In the most recent test I don't remember "us" even leaving the parking lot of the testing office. Tho, to be fair, it was a very big parking lot.