The Next Generation GPS Device

If you want to avoid traffic or get the chance to find the cheapest gas, Dash Navigation comes to do the job for you.

Dash navigation, according to cnn.com, is more than just a run-of-the-mill GPS unit. As far as you might know, the in-car GPS device, for years, has been triangulating its location through the Pentagon’s GPS satellites. And, the GPS signal itself has been available to the public for decades. But still, the number of units being sold annually has barely reach a million. By fact, only about 7% out of approximately 230 million cars in the U.S. make use of GPS. An electronic map with voice directions is great, but it has the potential to put you in the middle of rush-hour traffic.

Now, here comes the Dash device to fix the problem. Eric Kein, senior direction of product marketing at Sunnyvale, California-based Dash (an 85-person company), said, “When we talk to customers, that’s the number one thing… ‘Get me through this traffic… Tell me how to get around it.” To get it done, the company will be using $45 million in funding from VCs, including Kleiner Parkins and Sequoia.

Dash has created a hyper-networked navigation device that uses GPS and additionally, employs GPRS (a cell phone data technology) and wifi. Thus, the device is always connected. The various devices even chatter to each other constantly. In case you run 15 M.P.H. on the road while other car in the area normally go 45 M.P.H., the device informs the Dash Driver Network. That means the device should first be used by a critical mass before the feature will be useful.

Since July, about 2,000 testers are out using the device, majority in the Bay Area and LA, with some in Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, and Washington D.C.

Since it gets updates from time to time from the Internet, Dash was made to provide other kinds of up-to-date information. You can instantly be provided with a list of gas stations nearby, sorted by price, through a push of a button.

The company is currently in the process of further innovation of the device and its specs, in preparation of getting it in stores starting July 2008. Everyone can avail it for $500, plus $15 monthly subscription fee.