London taxi drivers are among the best in the world. To become a cabbie, they need to have a working knowledge of every street in the capital, something that typically takes two or three years of study (called, aptly enough, The Knowledge). But with cheap GPS navigation, are London cabbies obsolete? The BBC decided to find out, pitching a black cab driver (Andy) against reporter Spencer Kelly and his Tom Tom Go 720.
The satnav won the first round, although that was mostly due to Andy hitting some bad traffic. The next three designated waypoints, though, were won by The Knowledge. In the end, Andy the cabbie thrashed the Tom Tom by half an hour. The lesson here is that local know-how beats out computer algorithms. But with GPS, you won't be forced to listen to extreme political discourse on every trip.
The sat-nav v cabbie challenge [BBC News]
