Josh Wardell’s MINI Cooper S

Just a year ago you may remember I installed a Garmin GPS with traffic capabilities. Sadly it proved useless for commuting. Like most nav systems, it only had traffic knowledge of the largest interstates, and data was often 20-30 minutes delayed. And anyone living around Boston knows that GPSes are not very useful here as the largest roads are often slower than smaller ones.

Dash is a company that put a bit more thought into their GPS system, and produced what I think is the only GPS worthy of a daily commute or city driving. The Dash Express is always connected to a cellular network, and as each owner drives around,their flow information is reported back to the database. It records not only realtime data for the highways, but as you can see above, it even has knowledge of all but the smallest of roads. It combines this live data along with previous data, as well as data from many 3rd party sources, to calculate a much more accurate travel time for ALL roads. And although its network needs to increase a hundred fold to be completely precise, its intelligence has already proved valuable in my commute, especially as it displays and compares multiple routes, and I can look at specific areas well ahead of time so I can avoid them. In fact, it is the only system smart enough to route me to the quicker exit near work, whereas even Google routes you to a much slower, though shorter, exit.

I would not, however, recommend it for the casual user, as it can’t compete with the polished interface or portability of the other brands. (It almost looks like I have an old bus TV on my dash) But it can certainly save time, and potentially gas money as well if you’re sitting in traffic less (plus it lists gas prices pulled off the internet of nearby gas stations…). Instead of having a database POI search, it searches live off the internet, making it much easier to find what you are looking for weather it be a business name or even a generalize category. It also has an open API which many developers had made customized searches that you can download to it. And what’s starting to become one of the most important features in electronics I buy: an active company-supported enthusiast forum, with the actual developers participating.

The Dash comes with an equally giant panavise mount strong enough to mount a cinder block. I instead made a custom metal bracket allowing me to screw it to the Kuda mount that my previous GPSes have all attached to. That price continues to fall, and the monthly fee is really about the same cost as traffic and map updates that you pay yearly from other brands. Hopefully they will continue to improve the interface and add features as I find I am using it daily instead of once a month as before.