Dash Navigation, Inc., has announced that the Dash Express, the first Internet-connected GPS device, is now available for pre- order at the company’s Web site. Dash Express is said to be the only GPS that automatically and wirelessly updates traffic information using two-way connectivity.

 

“After completing a successful 2,000 unit national road test, we’ve had tremendous interest from consumers around the country to purchase a device,” Paul Lego, CEO at Dash, said in a statement. “As we ramp up our manufacturing we’ll have limited quantities of the Dash Express, so we want to ensure that the loyal community that has helped us with so much real-world feedback has a way to reserve a device first.”

 

Indicating that the problem with most GPS devices is that they are not intelligent, Rob Enderle, principal analyst at The Enderle Group, pointed out that they don’t see the world the way it really is, and they are only as good as their increasingly dated mapping information.

 

“Dash represents the leader of the next-generation of devices which can see, real time, the traffic conditions around you and be updated on-the-fly. So rather than routing you through traffic and road problems, Dash routes you around it, giving you more time at your destination. This is the core value of the Dash Express; it gives you time to do what you want to be doing — instead of sitting in traffic,” commented Enderle.

 

Lego stated that while any GPS device can provide directions to get a user from point A to B, the always-connected Dash Express provides the information the user need every day. He explained that the Dash Express gathers traffic information from the Dash Driver Network and combines it with other sources of traffic data to provide user with the accurate picture of what’s happening on the routes they are traveling.

 

He claimed only Dash provides traffic information for both freeways and arterial roads. In addition, the Data Express also provides up to three routing options to user destination that is based on flow rather than incident data, and it has the ability to automatically alert the user when traffic conditions change and there are traffic problems.

 

Additionally, Dash Express has the ability to use Yahoo! Local search and other Internet search sources, Lego said, unlike other GPS devices that come loaded with a static database of points of interest.

 

The Dash Express is expected to be priced at $599.99 and will include three free months of Dash Service. The company plans to ship Dash Express in mid-to-late February directly from their Web site, followed by broader retail distribution in Q2 2008.