The reviews are in…
*updated with review from the good people over at gpsreview.net*
Since we launched almost exactly one week ago today, we have been listening to what people have been saying about the Dash Express. What is most exciting to me personally is the fact that reviewers almost universally understand our vision - we wanted to create a product that was useful everyday! Most consumers leave their navigation devices in their glove compartments because it isn’t useful unless they need directions. Well the Dash Express was designed for everyday use, since we can bring you great traffic information, help you find destinations, get you gas prices, and bring content from across the internet into the car in a relevant way. Here is a sampling of what the reviewers have said along with links to the full reviews:
It’s the real deal, delivering out of the box the most impressive real time traffic system we’ve ever seen
“Dash Express GPS full drive review: total traffic terminator”
- Gizmodo, 03/27/08<br/>
We absolutely love what the connectivity brings to the device
“Dash Express”
- CNET, 03/27/08
if you are a hard-core commuter who keeps the radio tuned to stations with frequent traffic updates the Dash Express is your dream GPS.
“Dash Express”
- gpsreview.net
More important than reading the reviews, we have been listening to our early customers who are helping to shape the next software release. As I am sure you can imagine we have so many things we want to improve in the product and features we want to add. We are very excited about the way the product has been received and we are working hard on the next software release!
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:59 pm
I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.
Tina Russell
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Thanks Tina… welcome to the conversation!
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:19 am
Can’t wait for the next software release. I love how upgradable this device is and how easily the updates can be applied. Full time connectivity is awesome!
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:28 am
I love the fact that Dash actually listens to their customers questions & requests! This IS a progressive company.
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:46 am
Hi there Finally I found a site the has some good information on Automotive Gps Reviews. I was searching around and found your post The reviews are in…, thanks for the good info..I’ll be checkin back soon.
April 3rd, 2008 at 7:55 am
Planning on buying a Dash within the next 30 days… Definitely interested in a lifetime subscription option, depending on price - 3 months’ free service is great if it allows me to defer on which subscription to get for a couple of months (without being penalized for waiting), and would also mean I can buy sooner if the initial cost is just for the unit versus having to pay now for the unit plus the subscription.
Any thoughts on integrating Google’s Streetview? It’d be awesome to have the option to see a pic of the building/house/etc. (if available) just before reaching the destination.
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:49 am
Mark,
These reviews all seem mostly positive, which is good. However, as many of the reviews mention, the price tag is steep. It’s worth it if everything works perfectly, but not if there are problems. So I have a few quick questions:
1. On the old blog you mentioned that you will not be culling traffic data for smaller side streets. Is this accurate? (I went back to try to see if you responded to my question then, but the blog seems to have gotten toasted in the site update)
2. I’m really concerned about the review saying that the positioning of your car isn’t very accurate, causing the driver to miss turns. What can you tell me about that?
3. I’m also concerned about reviews saying that when you miss a turn its very slow to reroute, and keeps trying to direct you back to the turn you missed rather than calculate a new route. Since I often have my TomTom trying to send me up one-way streets the wrong way or up streets that are blocked off for construction, I need good rerouting when I drive past a turn.
4. What will Dash do for its early adopters when/if they get to a point where the release updates that only work on newer hardware? I don’t mind paying $400 + $10/month if I never need to replace the device and the software keeps improving, but I don’t want to be told in two years I have to buy a new Dash unit for another $400 because the current one is outdated.
5. When addresses are sent to the device, are they stored on the device so even if you lose connectivity they’re still there, or are they still on the Dash server?
The Dash looks like an awesome product and I’m getting closer and closer to buying it, but in my line of work I have to drive through very old cities with horrible traffic and cannot be even a minute late, so it has to work flawlessly for me to spend the money on it.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Well I got my dash on Tuesday afternoon and guess what I couldn’t play with it because is defective. No GPS signal at all so can’t play with it, sucks big time I was so excited to open it and play with it but I guess my GPS was broken. I am getting a replacement but in another 5 days, I sold my GPS for to get this one and didn’t work out of the box, very disappointed, and I need it a GPS for this weekend oh well I guess I’ll buy another basic GPS and just return the Dash. Hopefully it gets here tomorrow but I doubt it. Anyone that is ordering good luck!!!
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:17 pm
@Brian - We don’t have anything to anything to announce with respect to visuals (like pictures) being shown on the device.
@David - Happy to answer you questions.
1) We don’t collect traffic data on every road in the US. For example, dirt roads or small neighboorhood roads are roads we don’t collect data for. Having said that, we do collect traffic on almost every road that someone would logically think about as having traffic on it.
2) Every GPS device has what is called “Lag”, meaning that there is some time it takes to get the coordinate from the GPS chip and render a new map view to users. For every GPS device the time for your exact position to render on the screen is highly dependant on how much information you need to draw on the screen. So at zoom levels that have a smaller number of roads to render there is less of a lag than for zoom levels that have more detail. Since this is both a setting (zoom setting) and road network (how many roads are there around you) issue some people never see any meaningful lag, and others might. Finally, all I can say is that performance is important to us and we are constantly looking for ways to make the device “snappier”.
3) Based on our testing we are very market competitive on reroute calucation times. The issue of asking people to make a u-turn to go back onto the route they selected is something that we, and every navigation system, tunes. One of the things that is Unique about Dash is that we let YOU choose what route you want to take, so unlike other systems, our users explictly chose a route. Because of this choice, we have built logic that tries to differentiate between a missed turn (which would suggest getting the user back on their preferred route) vs. the users intention to take a different route. We will continue to refine this area over time.
4) We currently don’t have any plans to end software updates for this product, so I don’t have any details around how we might handle that situation in the future. I can say that we have an incentive to keep our subscribers happy!
5) Yes, all the addresses sent to the car via Send To Car are stored on the device so you can retrieve them even if you aren’t connected. The device is a fully functional navigation device even without connectivity!
I don’t think any GPS navigation company could in good concious state that their products work flawlessly. The world we live in is a dynamic one where old roads close, new roads open, etc… and we are working to bring LIVE data to the car but I can’t say that I have ever seen a navigation device work flawlessly.
@Freddy - UGGGG. I am sorry that you hit this snag. Did you buy from Dash.net or Amazon? I assume you spoke with our customer support group and hopefully they were able to help you out.
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I really like the Dash features, but I too find the lag to be frustrating. To say that “every GPS has a lag” may be technically true, but in reality with a simple side by side comparison, Dash lags, period. I’ve run with my Garmin Nuvi and my Dash side by side for 4 days now, and the Dash simply lags the Garmin (which is accurate) by nearly a city block. The difference appears to be in screen recess times. The Garmin is basically instantaneously “smooth” scrolling, where the Dash screen “jumps” every 2 seconds or so. That 2 seconds puts the screen 1 city block behind reality. No, other GPS devices don’t do this.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:48 am
I love most things about the Dash, but yeah, the positional refresh rate is seriously pokey at times, especially in the 3D view. Fortunately, the 2D view offers a bit speedier refresh rates (I mostly use this view for the traffic info), but compared to most other GPS, it does seem slow in 3D mode. It gives the impression, maybe incorrectly, that the processor can’t keep up with the data/redraws. I’m hoping future updates (yay! for connectivity) will speed things up considerably with more efficient software routines.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:02 am
How do other users feel about the touch sensitive top menu and volume controls?
I love the LCD screen itself. It’s plenty sensitive and accurate to touch.
But I hate the touch menu and volume buttons. I’d readily give up some of the aesthetics to have solid, tactile, push buttons on top. When I grab the Dash to reposition it, I’ll touch the volume/menu button accidentally half the time. Oddly, when I want to purposely enable the menu/volume function, I’d say it doesn’t register my touch half the time. It’s to the point that I have to actually swipe my finger across the menu button or touch it two/three times to register.
Take the iPhone for example. I love that the primary home button and the buttons surrounding the phone’s edge are all tactile push buttons. I think this makes the most ergonomic sense.
April 4th, 2008 at 6:58 am
So I wanted to play around with my Dash since Monday and the GPS signal wasn’t working so… I called Dash customer service, they ask me some unrelated questions, the guy was nice but I got the feeling that he just didn’t want to hear what my problem was. I explained to the rep that I received my unit on Tuesday afternoon and turned it on that same day at night, drove around and I didn’t get not GPS signal so I waited 2 hours and took it for spin again and was still not getting signal (GPS signal was stuck in texas), I waited until the morning for another spin and was still locked in texas. I also explained that I get GPRS signal and wifi without a problem and that I was located in NYC. He then told me to restart the unit which I previously did about 8 times. I also explained to him that I live in an area that has only house and no building so I have a great view of the sky, I also added that my Garmin (before I sold it) gets GPS signal right away. After telling him how the GPS was locked in Texas, he said so you are not in Texas, I said I told you I was in NYC, he then said do you recognize any street that are showing I said no not at all because when I put it in 2D view, the little car is stuck in texas, then he put me on hold, when he came back he said did you take a trip to texas? I was like huh? I only had this less than 24 hours, after trying and trying he finally said ok we believe you and apologize for this matter, they sent me an email and shipped me a new unit which they told me I will get in 4-5 business days. I am so pissed because I really wanted to try it but I was given a malfunctioning unit so now I have to wait longer to try it. I did explain to the rep that I sold my other GPS thinking that this works out of the box but it didn’t, he did not offer me a rush shipping, I told him again that I need it for this weekend and nothing again, all he told me was I’ll send a new unit in 4-5 business days. Unfortunately I will probably buy another Garmin unit and go to my trip this weekend and next week. I’ll had a bad experience with customer service, I thought when you order from the company it would have been more helpful but I guess not. I will most likely use the 30 day return policy, wanted to try it but wasn’t given the chance. Hope everyone else gets a better chance on this than I did, Good luck Dash! and Good luck Dash user!
April 4th, 2008 at 7:00 am
I received the unit on Tuesday afternoon, not on Monday. It was a typo.
April 4th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
@Jalan - I certainly won’t argue with you with respect to what you are experiencing, I will just want to reinforce two things. 1) Every users experience in this area will vary based on their local road network and their set zoom level… so some people have had no issue in this area, and others like yourself are looking for a snappier response from the device 2) We are aware of the concern you have and we are working to resolve it.
@Alex - Thanks for the thoughts on the hardware… this will be something we continue to evaluate for future products.
@Freddy - I am *very* sorry for your experience. I have been in communication with many people who have interacted with our CS team, and by and large everyone has spoken in glowing terms about the team. I know our CS team is going to reach back out to you to see what else they can do to help you out.
April 4th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Spent about 7 hours today driving across the Midwest on I-80. There is a lot to like about this device. Today I ran with both the Dash and my Nuvi just to see some of the differences (mainly between the maps).
The Garmin tends to nail the arrival time but then will increase it after restroom stops, etc. The Dash seems to be long on the arrival time but then comes closer to reality as you drive. I prefer the Dash method as there is more fluff in the drive time calc, as long as it isn’t too much fluff on long trips.
The big surprise was GPRS connectivity the entire way despite the coverage map showing most of I-80 east of Des Moines as coming soon. That was nice.
I set both devices to 3D and as close to 1 mile resolution as possible. No need to beat the dead horse of screen refresh. Will end my comments on that saying it appears that the Nuvi refreshes about 3 times for every Dash refresh, which would explain it being behind visually.
The volume is better than the Nuvi and stays less distorted at louder volumes. The Dash voice is more robotic than the Garmin TTS voice.
For Interstate travel the Dash really needs a “search near route” option. There is a big difference between 2 POI’s that are both 5 miles away if one is 5 miles perpendicular to your route and one is 5 miles ahead on the Interstate. You can’t, while driving, mess with pulling up POI’s to look at the map and see where it is compared to the Interstate. I drive freeways a lot. Can’t give up my Garmin yet because of this.
I miss my proximity alerts for traffic cameras.
Connected search just rocks. Period.
I find myself wishing for more contrast on the screen. Like if it had a white background instead of the grayish, greenish background it has. The roads would pop off the map more in the sun if the background was whiter.
A few map errors but when going to the TeleAtlas report site for errors they are sized. Hopefully that means we will see them in a near term quarterly update.
This device changes the game. Can’t wait to see the improvements in the early stages.
April 4th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
@Jalan - thanks for all the great feedback!
April 5th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Ditto on Jalan’s review the good and bad I have the same issues and praise
April 5th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Absolutely amazing! Have had All-in-One’s from Garmin (StreetPilot 26XX, Nuvi 680), Magellan (Maestro 4250), plus several PocketPC (Teletype, Destinator, SmartST, Mapopolis), this blows them away! Thought I would be the first in South Florida with one, but according to the traffic display this must not be the case.
Map scrolling a TAD slower, my recommendation is if you do anything, ignore all other feature requests and concentrate on speeding that up for the next update– it would make such a visible impact.
No question that GeoRSS feeds are the wave of the future, and Yahoo Pipes makes it super easy to make your own. Check out pipes.yahoo.com if you haven’t already - in 20 minutes I created a Weather GeoRSS feed for 111 cities in Florida - basically any city with more than 20,000 people living in it that had a Yahoo! weather RSS feed available. No programming required!
My #1 request - waypoint adding. Be nice to search for a POI while routing and have it added into the route. Doesn’t have to be full multi-stop routing, even if it just cancelled your route, routed to the POI, and then prompted you to ask if you’d like to resume your original route. Be nice for those food or gas stops.
All in all - a game changing GPS. By the way - a LITTLE more formatting in GeoRSS would be great - maybe just respecting and tags, or at least just and tags. Would make things 1000 times more legible.
April 6th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
@ scott g. lewis
“Thought I would be the first in South Florida with one, but according to the traffic display this must not be the case.”
Where abouts? Might have been me. I’m driving in the Naples area.
April 6th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Spent more time this weekend cruising around the Midwest with the Dash. Beginning to see the “made for commuters” effects, as some of the routes are really questionable when distances are involved. Don’t really know if it is the Dash algorithm or the TeleAtlas maps or the Inrix historical data. I am beginning to suspect a combination of the Dash algorithm and the Inrix data. The only thing that I know is that Google Maps, Microsoft Live, Mapquest, AAA and my Garmin 760 all do NOT come up with these same routes.
I completely understand that the “best” route is subjective. But after using a Garmin for about 8 years, I have gotten used to agreeing with it. I am finding for longer distance routes on the Dash that I don’t agree with the route it calculates. Again, that is subjective. But on a unit that calculates up to 3 options, I find that in NO case, did it even offer the route that I think is best as an option. None of the alternative routes matched the route my Garmin 760 calculated. It wasn’t even presented as an option. That leaves me really puzzled, as I think it is beyond dispute that the Garmin devices have a pretty solid routing engine reputation. Here are the specifics:
1) Calculated a route from Des Moines, IA to Madison, WI. I drive it often, and agree with Garmin’s default route. I-80E to I-380N to Cedar Rapids, to US-151 across northern Iowa. That route was not even an alternative on the Dash. Dash took me across Iowa on I-80E, into Illinois, and north on I-39N through Rockford. The second option was basically the same, but with a rather obscure change using Highway 30 in eastern Iowa to get to I-39N instead of using I-80E all the way. There would be no reason, short of an accident on I-80E in that area to use the alternative route #2. There was no alternative 3 offered by the Dash.
2) Des Moines, IA to St. Louis, MO. Once again, Dash did not even offer the default Garmin route as an alternative. Whether the default Garmin route is “best” or not could be debated. To not offer it as an option on a device that is supposed to give you 3 viable options is confusing to me. I consider, subjectively, the default Garmin route, the “right” route. Dash’s first route was leaving Des Moines down I-35S all the way to Kansas City, then east on I-70E. I do take this route sometimes, especially at night. The alternative route was I-80E into Illinois, then down I-74 to I-55S. The “right” route is I-80E to Iowa City, down US-218 to US-61 S. This is the Avenue of the Saints, and is all 4 lane except for 12 miles in northern Missouri. Dash didn’t offer this route as an alternative at all.
3) Des Moines, IA to Cedar Rapids, IA (west side of CR). Dash offered the typical route that Garmin does. I-80E to Iowa City, then up I-380N. The alternative was not really a serious alternative. It was north on I-35 to Ames, then across on US-30 E. The “real” alternative is to take Highway 151 off of I-80E through the Amana Colonies, instead of I-380N. Dash did not offer this as an option.
So, conceptually, the multiple routes are a great idea. And I will test in Kansas City and Chicago this week, how it works in larger metros. I am just skeptical though that the multiple route feature is useful for longer distance travel. I would be perfectly content with my preferred route not being the first choice. But to not offer it as an option at all, in all test cases, is troubling, especially when the Dash didn’t offer 3 routes at all - only 2.
April 6th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Seems the GPS portion of the device needs some refinement. If they could just work on the map refresh rate and routing choices, we’d have close to an ideal navigating device. I think the traffic and search functions tip the scale in favor of the device and I don’t regret my purchase at all. A few more revisions here and there and this device could take off in a crazy way.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
One thing I love about the Dash is the community building around it. People working with RSS feeds, people giving feedback to Dash, and Dash seemingly (Mark seems to be everywhere and is single-handedly keeping the internet geek community happy
is very interested in what we have to say. I guess the big test will be how soon some of these issues get fixed. I don’t have any unreasonable expectations for such a new device, but hopefully they can have some of these updated within 3-6 months. Much longer than that and I think people will start losing faith.
Thanks Mark for all the interaction! You are skilled and handling both praise and criticism of the unit.
Its strange, I don’t think Ive ever actively wanted a product to succeed before - something unique about this unit, company, and community.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I am very interested in the Dash Express but won’t buy until I read of improvements in both the lag & routing versus Garmin. I have owned a Nuvi 660 which has a great routing engine & it would drive me crazy to use a GPS that gave poor routes.
Once those shortcomings are improved I will be ready to join the Dash community.
April 8th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Given the Y! group and Dash blog, which is the preferred channel for pre-order customers to have future development input? I think I know the answer, but just wanted to be certain before I double-post everything.
April 8th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Rob - when you say pre-order customers are you talking about customers who “pre-ordered” the device, and now have it or are you talking about customers who have not yet ordered a unit?
For any owner we would like to engage in our forums. For non-owners this blog works. Thoughts?
April 8th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
To Mark. I get my Dash Express tomorrow, so will convert to the forums later. As an early adopter, I too have a mix of hope and fear. I want Dash Express to be the GPS to live up to its hype.
I have had Garmin, Magellan and Navigon…all having their various good and bad points as others have enumerated. None has all the best features and ergonomic attributes.
I know that Dash can’t be all things to all people, but my one point of puzzlement about Dash is its stated desire to be mainly a GPS for commuters. That seems to say you really ought to have two GPS devices: one for city and suburb driving; the other for city-to-city and vacation driving. Now maybe that isn’t what you mean, but that is how is comes across.
I’ve read over 100 reviews of the Dash (GPS Passion, Amazon, Cnet, Engadget, etc) and most praise Dash for traffic information and internet connectivity…but then state that routing is questionable. I know that maps and where you live affect your experience with routing, yet it seems the weak point of Dash. I really hope I’m wrong about this.
My thought is that Dash has changed everything just as you claim…and in a revolutionary way. But, I then think that Garmin, Magellan, Navigon and Mio are already working on connectivity…and they, at least Garmin, have already better routing. So, in a year from now, will Garmin have Dash’s main features plus superior “everywhere” routing?
I think I speak for all GPS users: we want it all! Best traffic reports, best connectivity, and above all..BEST ROUTING. If we can’t trust the routing of Dash, and another GPS comes out with similar other features…
I said I am buying Dash. What made me not wait was largely this blog and my sense that you and Dash are really listening and will in fact add important features now missing to the Dash, like waypoints, auto-zoom, etc. But mostly, you have to become superior in routing if you are to be more than a flash in the pan.
I want to say I have not anticipated any device with such enthusiasm since I bought my first Tivo…I have 5 of them. I’m wishing you and Dash the utmost success.
Please keep in touch with your customers. It is the mark (no pun intended) of superior companies.
Shocky Hungate
April 8th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
@MikesTooLz - You are correct a lithium-ion battery doesn’t have memory, but we want to make sure that end users fully charge their units since by the time the device arrives the battery could be fully drained. So we are just looking for users to charge up before they hit the road.
@Shocky - wow, I thought I was the only one who read ALL the reviews. I am glad to see that you have decided to join the Dash Driver Network! Given everything you have read, I am excited to hear from you about your experience to see how it maps up to your expectations. I want to clarify something for you, we are NOT advocating having 2 navigation devices, since we think that Dash’s routing is good enough for all use cases, and will only improve over time. I hope that our product will earn your passionate support over time, and I also hope that you have 5 cars so you can get 5 dash units to match your 5 TiVos! Be sure to ping me in the forums when you get your MyDash account.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Mark, you are amazing. 10:31pm and you’re still at it. Please go to bed and dream up ways to get those software upgrades speeded up! Sweet dreams.
I will “ping” you and let you know how it goes. I live in the Portland, Or. area part of the year; Harrisburg, Pa. the other half. Hope to give Dash Expess a good work-out.
Thanks for your quick reply,
Shocky Hungate
April 9th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Mark W,
first of all my sincere congratulations for the sense of Dash community built in this blog thanks to your effortless contribution.
Second, do you have any plans to come here in Europe?
Thanks, Paolo
April 9th, 2008 at 11:40 am
@Shocky - I have a 4 month old, so not much sleep going on in my place lately
@paolo - Thanks! As for Europe, we have nothing to announce at this time.
@Mike - Interesting voice memo idea. We can talk more about the roadmap in our mydash forums… see you there! Dash uses GPRS, so if your car has wifi, simply configure your Dash Express if you encrypt your connection, to work with your wifi, and you will be good to go!
April 12th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article The reviews are in…, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
January 3rd, 2009 at 7:56 am
Hello, thx for all,
January 4th, 2009 at 5:48 am
cheap airfare
January 6th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Hello, thx for all, very cheap airfare, 275373,