Dash GPS/Wi-Fi Gadget Lives Up to Billing

I've been following and writing about Dash Navigation since early in its inception, and much of the tech world has been anxious to see it go live. Finally, it's here -- and reviews say it's the in-car GPS unit to beat.

But always, the thing about Dash is that if it catches on and gets critical mass -- certainly not a guarantee -- it could bring about a dramatic shift in how people think about getting around by car. Dash aggregates input from all of the Dash units out there -- gathering anonymous info about exactly where each Dash car is and how fast it's moving -- and feeds it back to Dash users. If thousands of cars are driving around with Dash units in a given city, Dash owners will get pretty decent up-to-the-second information about how traffic is moving on roads they're heading towards or intend to take.

It could be a classic case of information shedding light on something that was previously opaque. People mostly guess what traffic will be like using models they've built in their heads about what it's usually like at certain times of day. Dash promises to stop the guessing -- we can know what traffic is like RIGHT NOW on the roads ahead.

Interestingly, while states struggle to fund roads to relieve congestion and cities like London come up with schemes to reduce peak traffic -- Dash might be one of the best solutions of all to congestion. If everyone had Dash, drivers would make better decisions about routes and could disperse traffic more evenly around highways and cities. Dash is probably, in fact, the cheapest way to do that.

. □