A new and improved GPS system is now available, which is expected to make a real difference in people’s lives.

As the system, called Dash, uses cellular data networks or WiFi (the three chips it contains are GPS, WiFi and GPRS), it can communicate back to the Internet but it doesn’t allow the user to browse the Web. Instead, its touch screen can be used for the search of nearby restaurants, gas stations, airports, stores and many more potentially useful locations.  

Dash’s most appealing feature, and also the very thing that separates it from other GPS systems, is its ability to connect the user to other ”Dash drivers” in order to exchange traffic information.

Each Dash unit transmits information on the car’s speed and location; when applying this for a specific area, several data packs stack up, thus resulting a fairly good description of traffic at a certain time. Nearby drivers have access to this intelligence and depending on what the numbers show, they can either modify or maintain their current routes.

”As a consumer who used to rely on the radio for my traffic information, I always hoped to hear something about my specific roads … our device actually gives you that personalized information -- not only on highways, but we can also tell you what traffic conditions are like along the arterials around you,” Mark Williamson, director of product management of Dash Navigations, recently stated.

Users have already found a flaw of this new device, namely the fact that its digital map does not show what cities the driver is passing by. But surely modifications are to be made as more and more people start using Dash.