Rating  - From a "non-tech" user
I love this GPS. I tried it in the worst scenario: downtown in a big city. I relied on it completely and it got me to my destination in spite of my hesitations!!!
It is not perfect, but the Dash crew has been there for me every time I have a question, problem, comment, suggestion. I feel that I am an integral part of making the Dash become better and better over the years.
Yes, it sometimes makes mistakes, but the errors are getting fewer with every update. And the USERS get to be a part of the actual development. No GPS is yet "perfect"...neither are maps. This is a keeper as I won't ever (I hope) have to "upgrade" to something else or buy new maps. They are part of the subscription package.
My complaint is that since I drive a BIG TRUCK and trailer and it is far noisier than a car, it is sometimes difficult to hear even with the sound turned all the way up. And, of course, I do not have the kind of warnings I need: low clearance, restricted routes, bridge or road weight limits or roads that are impassible with a 42,000# rig. I also simply CANNOT keep this unit attached with the suction cup...
For almost anyone: the screen is too sensitive to the touch.
I give it a 4 for the above reasons, but I think it has saved me time and effort and given me routing that is far more accurate than I have had with other GPS units. I am also confident that as the months go by and the new updates become available I will see even better routing and even more features.
Rating  - Unimpressive
I recently picked up a Dash unit, and my complimentary internet connection is about to expire... And I'm can't justify actually paying for a subscription.
= Performance
I purchased the Dash to help me manage traffic in Seattle - the street planning, particularly downtown, is very poor. But the Dash has been an awful performer - at one point, the darn thing tried directing me through an intersection off an embankment, so I could meet up with the street down below!
I assume it's due to the tall buildings obscuring the GPS signal, but the unit frequently informs me of a turn *after* I've driven past the road it wants me to take. :/
And as for the vaulted ability to route around traffic? It's non-existent - the Dash never helps me route around congestion, and doesn't even seem to take it into consideration when offering me routes.
= Interface
The interface is poor and buggy.
It's ridiculously sluggish, for one - it's not unusually for there to be a ~1 second delay between a button press and the unit responding. Particularly annoying when I'm trying to toggle between muting and unmuting the device. And since the buttons for doing this are non-clicked capacitance touch areas, there's no feedback on whether it read your click or not. So very frustrating.
The menu's are poorly laid out. It takes several clicks and scrolling to get to the addresses associated with the vaulted Send2Car feature, for example. And you can't just typing in an address - it has to be broken down into street number and then street name. The options aren't all that intuitive, either - no one whose tried to use my Dash has been able to decipher how to start the routing on their first try.
And sometimes the Send2Car feature doesn't work. For example - I was driving out to a state park an hour from my home to go hiking. I feed the park's name into the MyDash website so it could feed it to my car. The website cheerfully accepted it and confirmed the destination with a map showing the correct location. Great! So I send it to the car.
Go to the car, which tells me I have a new address. Great!
Go to the list of Send2Car addresses. It isn't there. Befuddled, I clear out a handful of outdated entries, and tried sending it again. Now, the website claims to be sending the address... but the dash no longer claims to be getting it, let alone displaying in the list of available destinations.
Even the update process is lack-luster. When I initially got the unit, I had to install a half-dozen updates, one-by-one-by-one - the unit isn't intelligent enough to manage that itself.
This is not to say the device doesn't have promise - when I'm out and about, the Yahoo! Local Search feature's been quite helpful. But it's the brief glimmers of greatness that illustrate how useful the device *should* be, rather then is.
I had high hopes for the Dash. But given how long its been on the market and how unimpressive it is *even now*... well, I can't say I'm expecting great things in future updates. I'd love to be proven wrong, though.
Rating - Dash rocks me in traffic
Only is a fee to get the traffic service. The gps still works as do the maps. I got this device some time ago when it was first released. The service and the cell connection is what makes this a killer gps device. Since I've owned the device I've seen a good 5 software updates. A few of them added some nice toys. Also the whole connected GPS rocks when you can right click and send to you GPS device from a computer.
Also for you hardware hackers on Amazon. This device is based on 95%% open source software. Hell even parts of the hardware are open source. [...]You can get full root access to the device if your willing to open it up. Most software from the openmoko can run on this device. The cell connection is provided by t-mobile. And the GPS is sirfstar III
Rating - Still waiting for prime time performance
I bought the Dash GPS for a family member, knowing its routing flaws and willing to wait for future updates to rectify them. We've since traveled to several cities with the Dash, and - despite some really ridiculous routings in Tallahassee, for example - we do feel the Dash is slowly getting more reliable and less silly. We're also optimistic that more people are acquiring the Dash, which helps (marginally, so far) with the traffic conditions displayed on the unit.
Still, it's too early to paint a rosy picture. Dash is just as apt to show 'red ahead' when traffic is flowing, and 'green ahead' when there's a snarl, which is really frustrating. We decided NOT to subscribe to Dash's $10 monthly subscription to do 'Connected Searches'. Why? Because (a) often the Dash will NOT connect (via cellular) while on the road, and (b) we don't care enough about gas prices shown for the limited number of stations we're passing.
Not one trip with the Dash has completed without some glitch or silliness, and I quickly learned how to push the two top buttons to initiate a troubleshooting report. Dash (the company) does respond to each detailed report, which is heartening, and Dash (the GPS unit) does appear to learn from times I've overridden its routing suggestions... sometimes learning too well (when, for instance, I've intentionally taken a lame route or detoured, the Dash attempts to recreate these using MyRoute).
Perhaps it's my imagination, but the automated voice seems to have improved lately (e.g. stopped pronouncing street names as if they were French), which is something I complained about once or twice, and which Dash acknowledged was an issue.
Will this device ever grow to fulfill the initial hope and hype gushed forth by techies online? It could, albeit slowly. A critical mass of ownership seems key, as well as the on-going (and seemingly true) commitment of Dash to continue upgrading their product. And a better routing algorithm (no longer ducking traffic lights like a fugitive from the law!) would do wonders toward making it a superb product.
For now, I'm skeptical, and (having been duped by the likes of Microsoft) it's hard to believe any company will actually continue improving/upgrading a product that they've managed to 'monetize'. Dash seems bent on convincing me to sign up for the monthly 'connected' subscription, and I get emails twice weekly about it. But no, I'll hold out for now and type addresses in manually, do in-unit searches, submit troubleshooting reports, make feature suggestions (play me an Audible book, why don't you??) etc., then see how future (free) updates improve the product. Unless/until the Dash improves, however, we'll regard this GPS simply as a means of "not getting lost in an unfamiliar city" and little more... because we got tired of our friends laughing at its proposed routes while driving around our hometowns!
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Customer Reviews for Dash,99-1000-001,892437002012,0892437002012,B0014CIBWC, |
