The shortest route for cars may be down your street

Nicholas Carr: "Dashboard maps are having some unintended consequences. In many cases, the shortest route between two points turns out to run through once-quiet neighborhoods and formerly out-of-the-way hamlets...a research group in the Netherlands last month issued a report documenting the phenomenon and the resulting risk of accidents. It went so far as to say that satnav systems can turn drivers into child killers"