Dash

The Dash Express GPS navigation system has the potential to transform the way we get from point A to point B, make our highway infrastructure more efficient and let government spend our road-building dollars more wisely.
This unit takes GPS to the next step beyond being just a "yuppie compass."
You can get all of the pertinent poop from the Dash website at www.dash.net, but here are the salient points:
The Dash Express is a GPS unit that incorporates internet access through WiFi and cell phone communications. As you drive, it gathers data about your location and speed (or lack of it) and passes that information up to the main server. The server is also getting traffic data from every other Dash unit in the area, as well as from commercial carriers, road sensors and other sources. The result is an accurate traffic picture in real time, constantly changing to reflect changing conditions.
The Dash Express also uses its internet link to access constantly updated information about restaurants, gas stations (including where the lowest gas prices can be found), lodging, businesses, attractions, etc.
Check out the video for a demonstration of how it works.
This is a brand new product, just released this year, so it can only get better. The company promises periodic software updates via the WiFi connection.
The implications of this kind of GPS device are profound. It prompted the moderator of gpspassion.com to write:
I have been writing about GPS for a little over 5 years and have worked for a GPS software company for a year. The reason I mention this is that in all that time I have never made a statement like the one I'm making now: the Dash Express by Dash is, in my opinion, a paradigm changing machine. Automotive GPS will never be the same after the release of this unit. It takes GPS from a "get me from here to there" paradigm, to a paradigm in which GPS is integrated into one's daily life and becomes just another tool to make all sorts of travel and non-travel related stuff easier and more convenient.
In fact, it may be more cost-effective for governmental units to give these things to their residents, either free or subsidized, as a way to make their streets and highways more efficient and to avoid having to spend money on unnecessary road-building.
My only problem with the Dash Express is that it appears to be just for four-wheeled vehicles. When they come out with a weather-proof model that can be operated with a motorcycle-gloved hand, I'll be all over it.