Dash Express. Hype or Game Changer?

Imagine an Internet connected navigation device. A lot of cell phones come with built in GPS modules/mapping software (Google Maps). These may be able to access the internet and show the traffic for particular roads. Now that personal GPS units are either built into the car or as a portable unit, personalized navigation is becoming ubiquitous. But without real time traffic conditions, especially in heavy metropolitan areas, navigation can be a bit troublesome and not as convenient as it can be. Yes there are also GPS units that also have real time traffic as reported from different traffic organizations (Ex. Sigalert), but most users would probably value a real time poll of information from people who were actually driving those roads. Wouldn’t it be more efficient and valuable if the information came from the drivers themselves? For instance, you have a friend who is driving on the freeway or street that you’re going to drive on, and you were wondering what the driving conditions were like. Normally you would call that person, and they can tell you how fast they’re going, what the traffic is like, etc… from their experience. You then (at least in Los Angeles) plan your route accordingly… take the 405 instead of the 5, or the 60 instead of the 10, or just avoid the freeway and take the side-streets.

This is where the Dash Express comes in, a combination of GPS, and online community type features. Being connected to the internet provides a two-way connection pipe for the device to communicate with servers on the Dash Network. The main feature of the device is to report back speed and location information back to the Dash Network (both passively and anonymously) so that other users of the device can use that data to provide current and average traffic information over time for specific freeways, and streets. A device can theoretically provide the best route (of shortest distance, and the least amount of traffic based on the data collected from other users) to get to your destination quickly and easily. There are a couple things to be skeptical about with this feature. One, it will only be as good as the amount of dash users in the area you are driving, as the pool of information gets larger, the better the traffic data. It will be interesting to see how much data will actually be needed to get a good sample of information for accurate traffic reporting. Two, the company is not only charging a premium for the device itself, but a monthly fee to use the service. Without paying a monthly fee, the Internet connected features, like real time traffic, will be disabled. There is definitely a high entry cost for this device, and it will be interesting to see if people will be willing to pay a premium to access this information. There are plenty of other features, gas price lookup when you search for nearby gas stations, and a web portal for your device so that you can send and share information with the Dash Express from any computer that has access to the Internet. Lists of destinations, addresses, and more can be distributed to your own and other Dash Express devices owned by other people (your friends maybe?). The key here is that they need to get the device out to as many people as possible, and I think down the line they will realize that they need to severely discount the device itself and try to make the money back through the subscription model, or keep the purchase price high, but take out the subscription fees altogether. Something needs to be done to get the device and/or the technology to more users (licensing software/network to other manufacturers… imagine buying a car with compatibility to the Dash Network). The Dash Network will improve as the user base becomes larger. This definitely sounds like a game changer, but we must wait and see… It’ll be great to see if this idea actually starts to take off.

This is interesting… it looks like some users on Amazon.com think there might be a buzz campaign to help promote the product. It may be true but a device as new and innovative as this needs to have a good word of mouth campaign to help get the technology in the hands of more users. The more the better for this device.