A generation raised on online maps and GPS could become lost if a major cyber-attack knocked Britain’s digital navigation systems offline, experts warned today.
Reliance on satnavs and phone apps such as Google Maps by younger people means many no longer possess traditional wayfinding skills or have a good spatial memory.
Navigation and cyber academics fear some would struggle if the internet collapsed, given the difference between turn-by-turn instructions and building a mental map.
While most people can get anywhere with their phone, there are concerns navigation and map reading skills which require effective use of the brain are being lost forever.
Ordnance Survey Landranger and Road maps, an AA or Collins regional road atlas and A-Z street atlases were once crucial companions for finding your way around.
But with about 95 per cent of UK adults now owning a smartphone – which rises to nearly 100 per cent for those aged 16 to 24 – they may never wish to use a real map.
Even in areas abroad where Brits might not have access to mobile phone data, they can still download maps in advance and use the GPS signal to navigate when there.
Human behaviour expert Michael Bond has written extensively about how GPS is negatively impacting the natural navigation abilities and spatial awareness of humans.
He told the Daily Mail today that it was not just younger generations now losing traditional wayfinding skills, saying: ‘It’s all of us who use sat nav to navigate.
An Ordnance Survey map from 2001 showing the area around east and south-east London
A map from Google Maps taken in the present day, showing the same area of London
‘But that’s inevitable, since the technology has made it easier for us to get around day to day, and we no longer need to know where we are.
‘In practical terms it’s only a concern if the tech fails, though you could argue that we lose something else – a connection to the landscape, perhaps.’
Mr Bond, who wrote the 2020 book Wayfinding: The Art and Science of How We Find and Lose Our Way, added: ‘Relying on Google Maps and satnav doesn’t require us to use our spatial memory.
‘The spatial part of the brain – the hippocampus and surrounding areas – is completely inactive when we follow navigation instructions on a screen.
‘It’s always possible to revive those skills and re-engage with our spatial memory function, I don’t think we ever lose that possibility. The brain is pretty efficient in its use of resources.’
He also explained that the key difference between following turn-by-turn instructions and building a mental map is ‘memory’.
Mr Bond said: ‘Following instructions doesn’t require you to build up a memory of the space you’re moving through. Remembering a set of instructions, a task that uses a different part of the brain, is a perfectly valid navigational strategy, and many of us use it very effectively.
‘But to build a mental map – a memory of space – requires you to think beyond your own position in the landscape and build associations between where you are and the features of your surroundings, and to think about how those features relate to each other.
‘With the first method, if you lose your instructions you’re pretty much lost. With a mental map, you’re never lost.’
He said the question over whether people struggle to get around if digital systems failed ‘would depend how much they remembered about the routes they had to take’.
A double-page map from the Pocket Street Atlas version of the London A-Z, in print since 1936
The Google Maps version of the same map, covering major rail stations such as London Euston
Mr Bond continued: ‘My guess is that many of us would struggle once we went beyond our immediate neighbourhoods, or had to depart from routes that we took regularly.
‘But, if we had to, there’s nothing to stop us relearning those skills. Our brains haven’t changed since the advent of GPS.’
Ramsey Faragher, chief executive of the Royal Institute of Navigation, told the Daily Mail: ‘It is certainly the case that without intentional intervention it is inevitable that we will all lose these abilities if we do not exercise them – in much that same way as people are less good at mental arithmetic than they were before calculators, laptops and smartphones.
‘Satnav in our watches, phones and cars, with accompanying maps, makes it very easy to never need to learn how to navigate well in traditional ways and the develop and build up a natural sense of direction and confidence to be able to plan and successfully execute a long navigation sequence using just a paper map, and knowing how to determine your actual position if you do get lost.’
He added that the UK does still ‘have reasonably good signage in our cities designed for humans to navigate with little more than a map, and signage’.
But Mr Faragher suggested we ‘might certainly get a lot more congestion and confusion’ in the event of navigation technology failing.
He continued: ‘The real issue right now today of a cyber attack on our satellite navigation technologies would be the impacts on automated systems that rely as much on the time being provided from these systems rather than the position.
‘A lot of work is going on at the moment trying to encourage critical national infrastructure to ensure it has multiple sources of time and is not dependent entirely on a single radio technology for that, and certainly not one with no cryptographic protections.’
He also pointed to the recent Telstra incident– a major outage at Australia’s largest telecommunications company which led to cancelled train services and left thousands of people without mobile coverage.
Early versions of GPS systems in a car in 2000. The tech originated in the 1970s and 80s
Mr Faragher said this showed how a central core failure that got the ‘time and date wrong can impact a much wider area than the room that particular device is sitting in’.
Andy Gardiner, head of research at Ordnance Survey, told the Daily Mail that the ‘way younger people interact with mapping has undoubtedly changed, with digital maps and navigation apps now part of everyday life’.
But he added: ‘We still believe map-reading skills remain an important life skill, whether you’re using a paper map, a digital map or a smartphone. Understanding how to read and interpret a map helps people navigate confidently, stay safe outdoors and discover new places.’
Speaking about the impact of map apps and GPS on spatial memory, Mr Gardiner continued: ‘Digital navigation tools help people travel more confidently and have transformed the way we get around.
‘However, spatial awareness develops through active engagement with the environment, noticing landmarks, understanding direction, and building connections between places.
‘Technology is a valuable aid, but people tend to develop a deeper understanding of their surroundings when they are actively interpreting the landscape around them rather than simply following instructions.
Speaking about the impact of a potential cyber-attack that took down navigation systems, he said: ‘Many people would probably find it more difficult to navigate if digital systems suddenly became unavailable, particularly those who rely heavily on navigation apps in their daily lives.
A present-day satnav device, showing how far the technology has come in a few decades
‘That’s why basic map-reading skills remain important. Recognising landmarks, understanding directions, and knowing how to use a map can provide people who are navigating with confidence when technology isn’t available.’
Roger McKinlay, former president of the Royal Institute of Navigation, helped develop the first GPS systems in the 1980s but now worries people are too dependent on it.
He warned back in 2016 that people’s ‘natural navigation ability will deteriorate as we rely ever more on smart devices’, as we build towards a ‘satnav in everyone’s pocket’.
And neuroscientist Hugo Spiers ran a study in 2009 showing London taxi drivers who had been retired for four years did worse on navigation tests than those still working.
The impact on navigation is one of many ways in which hostile state actors could use artificial intelligence to carry out a major hack of critical infrastructure by 2028.
UK cyber chief Richard Horne warned it is ‘highly likely’ countries such as Russia and China will increase their use of AI to carry out ransomware attacks and exploitation.
Speaking earlier this week, the National Cyber Security Centre boss said the UK must be braced for an attack on its critical national infrastructure – covering everything from defence and energy supply to emergency services and the transport network.