Gizmodo
Here's the first look, net wide, of the Upstart GPS-startup Dash, and their GPS system. What's special: Instead of pulling maps, and points of interests from a drive or flash memory, the Dash can pull down real time updates over WiFi or cellular data.
Let me spell it out for you: When you search for a gas station, it returns street directions, but also the pump prices. When you search for a movie theater, it returns movie times. Your maps never get out of date, and your points of interest database could be pulled from all the Google/Yahoo!/Yelp types of sites, giving you access to a practically unlimited number of...roadside Denny's.
And then there's traffic hive-mind thingy...(jump)
UPDATE: Whoops! Photo works now...thanks B.A. Kotaku.
Instead of merely reporting accidents and moving you away from them, the Dash comes with historical traffic data that goes hour by hour, per section of road. That means it knows that highway 80's average speed is about, oh, 20 miles per hour at 5pm going towards the bridge. And in the middle of the night, it should be 60.
But that doesn't account for one time delays like ballgame traffic and accidents. Say someone using a Dash is stuck in some traffic like that. The Dash GPSs uses its cellular data link to report slowdown to the Dash central server, which kicks down the fresh data to other users in the area. So your Dash is part of a traffic avoiding hive mind. Think about it&Mdash; Big cities are full of traffic, and early adopters, so this could really work.
Dash GPS's connectivity also makes it pretty easy to program. You can use the touchscreen. Or you can select an address on your PC, right click, and select "Send to Dash" to move it directly to your device. In the demo I saw, this took about 1 second. (Below)
Another thing that impressed me about Dash was how effectively it searches for stuff you need. Eric searched for propane, and the GPS hooked into Yahoo!, where it pulled back results for hardware stores, and other places that didn't actually have the word propane in the store's title. The web interface is tweakable, too.
One could setup Dash to update RSS feeds with geographic data, for things like apartments on craigslist, or dog parks.
The screens here are from a prototype device, so the UI has a long way to go before it starts shipping in early 2007. The hardware is a little thick around the middle, but that's ok considering this isn't meant to be a pocketable GPS, considering all that connect-licious wireless gear inside.
PS, Cory D. and the EFF Gangstas: These guys are insanely pre-cautious when it comes to privacy of location data, too. Pricing? Not yet.
[Dash.net]
Comments
i can's see the pics, maybe it's just me
i cant see the pictures, maybe it's just me
post my comment u confounded machine, i cannot see the pictures! ur fault or my browser? now, POST!
This sounds amazing. I'd love to know a rough estimate on the price. I doubt that they'll want to divulge that now. Also, can you explain more how exactly the cellular data link works?
Can someone rich buy me one (oh and a car to go with it please) when it comes out. I get lost so damned easily, one trait I get from my mother.
i seem to be having problems seeing some photos on the site....
If it pulls down all mapping data cellularly (huh?) what happens when I'm in a cellular dead zone like, say, rural New Hampshire or my driveway?
You mention wi-fi and cellular... will it just 'war-drive' open hot-spots to get new data? - That would be great.
Also, I'm tired of loading maps on my Navman (icn-510) when going somewhere (another state/country). I'd be interested to know if i'm going to another country that has yahoo maps, if this would just work. (with wifi access)
And I'm not into the subscription model either. I'm happy to pay good $$ up front, with no ongoing costs. That means I'm not interested in a phone plan for my GPS unit.
Sounds like a cool GPS gadget. But, like Homerjay said, what would happen in a dead zone?
What would totally rock is if it would buffer the 'stuff' ahead of you a few miles at a time. You know, like a portable CD player would buffer 8 seconds of music ahead of what its actually playing, I would love to see this thing have some built in storage to buffer the surrounding 50 miles of information or so. This could be user configurable as to the type of information that is buffered. Point of interest information doesn't take that much space, however, live traffic information and the like would be unavailable in a dead zone.
To echo the comment from ksat, this device would really be ideal if the boys and girls at Drive would enable a large caching feature that would autoupdate when cellular access is possible and hold a static data image of the last successful update when we get stuck in the boonies. Otherwise, this device is useless outside of the major metropolitan areas. My TomTom would be better looking for gas and pancakes around rural Montana.
What cellular network does it use? A proprietary one or do you need a subscription to a provider, like Cingular and their blazing EDGE (sarcasm) network? After using EDGE daily on my Treo650, I can't imagine dealing with the speeds especially when I want information NOW.
Hi eveyone,
This is Mark Williamson from Dash. I just saw a few comments asking about what happens when you don't have a Wi-Fi or cellular connection. I just wanted to let you all know that the device still functions without a connection. All our maps and routing capabilities are stored locally, so these are independant of connection status.
You mention it replies to the Dash servers telling them how fast I'm going on any given road. How often and how much data is sent about my driving habits?
They gonna roll over if a judge asks for it?
...eh... I don't think I'm down with all that. I'm already trying to figure out how to yank the black box in my car.
Sorry, but, this statement is a bit difficult to believe - "All our maps and routing capabilities are stored locally" - These things must have GB's of storage onboard - READ: VERY EXPENSIVE!
Could someone enlighten us to the storage capability of these things?
sounds like TomTom's got a run for their money. Now all we need is some dash homebrew that lets it play doom and prevents it from recording how fast you're going or sending it to their servers, but rather just displaying it on the screen.
not that it matters to me because i don't have my liscense and when i get it, i'm not going to go over the speed limit. except in parking lots that serve as waterfowl hangouts.
As for the cell link, it probably has a usb port and hooks into your cell's data cable, or maybe its own GRPS radio built in and a SIM slot.
RSS would be amazing, though. I'd just set it up next to my bed and get my gmail and all the latest news from the giz without my head leaving the pillow!
Hey, this is Mark from Dash again.
I want to address the issue that "The Brain" brought up, which is privacy. We take the issue of privacy very seriously. We have designed the device so that when data is sent back to Dash about traffic conditions it is anonymous data. We actually anonymize this information at the device before it is sent back to us.
We are going to actively engage electronic privacy groups (like the EFF) to validate that we are, in fact, only sending anonymous data.
Mark, thanks for posting here. I can't wait to get one! It sounds fantastic! Looking for Beta testers? :-)
- Jon in SF
Mark, thanks for posting! Need Beta testers? I can't wait to get one!
- Jon in SF
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