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Holistic Guidance - Dash Express Two-Way Internet-Connected Portable GPS Navigator
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List Price: $299.99
Our Price: $299.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Dash
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Electronics
Brand: Dash
Color: Black
EAN: 0892437002012
Feature: Get true up-to-the-minute traffic data from the most reliable source--other Dash devices
Includes Mp3 Player: 0
Label: Dash
Manufacturer: Dash
Model: 99-1000-001
Native Resolution: 480 x 272
Publisher: Dash
Studio: Dash
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Features
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Get true up-to-the-minute traffic data from the most reliable source--other Dash devices
Find anything you need right from the driver's seat using Yahoo! Local Search
Automatically and wirelessly receive updated software and new features
Send addresses straight to your device from any computer via your Internet browser or Microsoft Outlook
Interact with your device and other Dash users on my.dash.net
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Editorial Reviews:
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Stuck in traffic and want to know if you are going to make that meeting on time, or need to call and warn someone? Will you make it to your kid's recital, or be home in time for dinner? Wouldn't it be nice to know which route to work is going to be faster today before leaving your driveway, and be automatically updated if traffic changes once you're under way? Knowledge isn't just power, it's a time-saver, too. And Dash Express has the smartest, most advanced traffic solution available?the innovative Dash Driver Network. Combined with comprehensive historical and sensor-based traffic information, the Dash Driver Network provides Dash users with the most detailed, accurate and current traffic picture available today.
Dash approaches traffic in an entirely different way - by collecting it from other people driving real commute routes, during real commute times. Each Dash Express anonymously and automatically sends its position and speed back to servers at the Dash Network Operations Center. The Dash servers then update all other Dash devices in the area with current road speeds. That way, members of the Dash Driver Network always have the best, most up-to-date traffic information available. It's a growing network for better information. However, even the first Dash devices in an area get traffic data that's superior to other GPS devices. That's because Dash devices receive traffic info from road sensors, commercial fleets and other sources through our partnership with Inrix, the premier traffic data provider in the U.S. Starting with the first devices in each market, Dash adds further value by using these initial cars to calibrate the sensor data. This lets Dash assign it a high (straight line) or medium (dotted line) confidence rating, giving you all the information you need at a glance. The Dash Driver Network provides coverage on nearly 2 million miles of US road, and provides the only source of live traf
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: lots of potential, but not there yet
Comment: Let me start by saying i REALLY wanted this product to succeed. They are ahead of the curve and ahead of the major GPS makers (but not for long in the 'live' traffic department from what i read) but as a whole this GPS device didn't measure up.
I gave this device 3 weeks to live up to my expectations, but it never did. I have a 2-3 year old garmin with updated 2007 maps, and it can do some bone-headed navigation, but at least it always seems to try to find the shortest route. The DASH regularly routed me 'the long way' when there were obvious and pretty big roads to take to shorten the route.
An example, driving home from the office, it gives me 3 choices, none of which are my tried-and-true routes, i choose one that is close to a normal route, it estimates 44 minutes to get home, this number seems high, so i disobey DASH amd take my normal turn (Connecticut Ave into NW Washington DC), it recalculates quickly and knocks off 12 minutes from my drive time. Later in the drive I override it again and another 4 minutes driving time goes away. A difference between 44 minutes and 28 minutes is pretty significant.
On another drive there was a accident on the highway ahead of me blocking 3 of 4 lanes (reported via XM radio traffic), it even showed up on the DASH as 'red' road, but it drove me straight into it. I tried having it recalculate the route (as i sat stopped in traffic), but it wouldn't route me off the highway. I dug out my garmin fired it up punched in the destination, and then hit 'detour' and it told me to get off at the next exit. By the time i got to the top of the exit ramp the DASH had recalculated a route getting me back on the HWY just past the backup (a better route than the garmin came up with, as garmin attempts to completely avoid getting back on the hwy). There doesn't appear to be anyway to force it to detour around a mess in traffic.
Custom MyRoutes: Great idea, but it appears to only be able to store 1 MyRoute for each route. From work to home there are 3 good ways to get home for me depending on traffic, none of which DASH finds on its own. So if i go one way, then another the next day, it forgets the first and doesn't place it in the list of possible routes.
minor gripes:
i left the car power adapter at home on a trip and although the unit has a USB port, it wont charge the battery off it, or run from an iGo with USB tip.
speaker volume does not go high enough if you like to drive with windows open.
Sorry to say i returned my DASH. Hopefully they will make improvements and maybe i'll buy the next version.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting but not ready for primetime
Comment: I bought the device as a gift for my wife--she drives around Phoenix all day, every day. I had hoped that this would save some of the time she spends sitting in traffic. The bottom line is this-DON'T BUY THIS UNIT.
The basic premise of the device is that by sharing traffic data, the device can calculate a more rapid way to get from point A to point B. The sharing of traffic data is truly amazing, and it's great to see green/yellow/orange/red superimposed over the roads in front of you. For a knowledgeable commuter, this information is invaluable since you may be able to take backroads or surface streets rather than highways during rush hours.
My gripes with the unit are as follows:
1. The database of streets and locations and addresses is incorrect. Several of the major streets in the area of Phoenix in which I live are misrepresented in the database/map, and therefore routing in my neighborhood is simply WRONG. But that's OK--I know my own neighborhood. But I am leery about the database in general because I used the unit this weekend in Tucson and several of the routing suggestions took us to wrong locations. Including, when we were trying to go to Kartchner Caverns State Park, the Dash took us someplace about 20 minutes away! The GPS atlas in use (at least for Arizona) stinks--and it's something that our Garmin unit has right. The Hertz Neverlost works well too, so it's not that the data doesn't exist--it's that Dash isn't using it.
2. The routing suggestions are frequently ridiculous. I refer to this routing scheme as the FBI scheme: the way you would drive if you were trying to lose someone who was trying to follow you! Imagine a route that is basically a straight line two miles long in real life; the Dash will suggest (sometimes) a straight line between the two, and then the alternates will be 4 or 6 miles long including circular tips around the block or U-turns after the device has guided you past the destination. On one instance we missed a freeway exit in the center of Tucson because the exit was closed for construction--the Dash unit suggested that we continue 47 miles (!) and then exit; instead, we exited at the next exit (1 mile ahead) and then the unit routed us to the correct destination. Sometimes the device will route you through little streets in neighborhoods ("shortcuts") rather than big, well-known streets with traffic signals.
3. There is no way to save a route you like and see how the traffic is on that route. There is also no way to avoid a specific street or stretch of highway. There is no way to plan a trip with several stops.
4. In light of the above, I simply don't trust the unit. I just don't trust that the unit is taking me to the right destination. It may just be taking me the fastest way to the wrong destination. A device like this is too unreliable for now. Once they get a decent base map in place, and the routing engine offers alternatives that a knowledgeable cabbie might make to get from point A to point B, and once it become possible to make some of the advanced routing options I proposed above, the product will be great. Until then, it is just cool.
I'll be sending mine back.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Some good, some bad
Comment: I'll summarize my review as follows: This product has some good features and some bad ones.
I bought this product specifically to reduce the amount of time I spend in traffic during my daily commute (in NJ near NYC). The good news is that it has helped. While I do not yet get as much "real-time" traffic feedback as I would have hoped, I expect that once the Summer ends, this should get better. After a couple of months of use, I have only gotten stuck in 2 traffic jams that the Dash did not forewarn me of and neither of them was very bad.
The bad news is that as a regular GPS, the Dash stinks. The way directions are provided and the way they are displayed are inferior my Garmin...they are even inferior to the mediocre nav system in my GM truck! You really should not plan on using the Dash for anything other than commuter help until they get better on this.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Only one star for me!
Comment: This unit is only good if you are going to work and home and you would like to see how long it is going to take you because of traffic. It also has a cool search function that works well. BUT if you need to go to three or four places a day like I do THIS IS NOT THE UNIT FOR YOU!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hope
Comment: I've used this product since the day it was available to the public. I'll continue to use it, mainly because there's hope that it will one day live up to its potential, and it's functional now. Most of the reviews here are good at listing the pros and cons. I thought I would select out the ones of particular importance to me in comparison to my Tom Tom 700 and my TeleNav account:
Pros:
Internet connectivity is great and helpful
Working from my computer is also helpful (though I can do some of the things they offer with my TeleNav account)
Updates without having to log on are a big advantage
Cons:
Voice is annoying to listen to and mispronounces many names
One doesn't have flexibility on what one sees on the screen. I'd like to see my speed the whole time. Instead I have to see arrival times which are almost alway inaccurate.
Routing is at times comical: I've been told to get off the highway and then get right back on again; to go past the street I need and then make a U turn back to it; to turn onto one road and then immediately back on to the one I was on, etc.
Traffic reports are uniformly inaccurate (that is, there's often no traffic when such is indicated and traffic when such is not). I suspect this is because there are not many owners near me.
In conclusion, most of the problems I have seem relatively easy to fix, even if they have not been fixed to this point. The mechanism for improvement, given this unit's connectivity, is right there. That's why I continue to have hope for this product!
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