If one absolutely must use a smartphone in traffic the only right moves to make after a navigation app stops working is to either ignore the device and continue on your way without it (seriously, can nobody navigate without these devices any more?) or to ignore the device and find a parking spot someone where you can sort it out.
No matter what that dumb smartphone does, it cannot make you have close calls in traffic unless you are acting like an utter moron. It can't reach out and grab the wheel, it can't slam the brakes, it can't block your field of vision. YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF THE VEHICLE.
This bit bears repeating: fiddle with that damn device and you will end up killing an innocent person.
>...ignore the device and continue on your way without it (seriously, can nobody navigate without these devices any more?)...
I can, and I'm sure most people can reasonably get around without on if they're familiar with the area. Towns and cities with a grid layouts and numbered roads means that most people can probably find an address if they get a cross, but most of the US is not laid out in that manner. It's doubly frustrating when you hit a neighborhood called Winding Oaks, and every road is Winding Oaks Trail, Winding Oaks Lane, Winding Oaks Circle, Winding Oaks Road, etc.
However, no, I probably cannot get to a location if it's in an area without a grid layout that I'm unfamiliar with. I could probably get reasonably close if I reviewed the directions beforehand, but with turn-by-turn navigation, there's a good chance that I will not have done so with detail.
For the record, I'm not condoning using a phone while driving. I was only addressing the point of people not being able to navigate without modern navigation.
While visiting Turkey a few years back I witnessed amazing incidents:
- The bus I was on was driving really slowly (walking would be faster), to the point the locals started getting frustrated... and told him to get off the phone: He was texting constantly.
- A driver of a 'biskilet' (an electric moped) had his phone jammed under his open face helmet so that he could talk white riding. I saw quite a few other riders with phones in their hands...
As an aside: I've also seen cops in my country (Oz) using phones while driving, despite being illegal.
*Perhaps not in your specific country.