Police said the hapless 78-year-old driver, who was not named, and the occupants of the vehicle he ran into escaped unharmed from the collision late Sunday, but it could have been much worse.

The man told officers his car GPS had told him to "make a U-turn immediately" as he drove along lost on the autoroute near the town of Nancy in search of a hotel.

He did so, not realising the limitations of his satellite navigation device, which guides using verbal directions.

"It's not the first time we've had a GPS incident," one of the officers said, recalling the time a police vehicle found itself face-to-face with a motorist going the wrong way in accordance with his computer's instructions.

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