Take the second exit – oh sorry, my mistake!

I know many people who have love-hate relationships with their sat-nav.

Some motorists rely heavily upon these devices to find their way anywhere they haven’t ventured before, but if they’re put in a bad mood because of traffic or after being instructed to drive down a dead-end road, they shout at the sat-nav as if its feelings could be hurt.

Here’s some news – in the future there’s a possibility that the emotionless little sat-nav’s feelings could really be hurt by a driver’s anger towards it.

The head of an "emotional robotics" group at Cambridge University is trying to create computers capable of detecting different emotions in human voices, and then reacting accordingly.

The professor explains, "If a driver was stressed, [the sat-nav] could stop a mobile phone from ringing, turn the radio off and even stop giving instructions until the driver had recovered his composure."

The aim of the invention would be to relieve the stress which can sometimes be caused while driving. I can’t wait to hear a sat-nav apologise for telling me to drive across farmland or through a new office building to reach my destination!