I got to play with the Dash Express a little bit at CES, and although I found the interface not quite as intuitive as Garmin’s or Magellan’s, Dash does offer some unique features. For example, the Dash Express will provide 3 routing options for every destination address entered, and calculate each route’s travel time forecast based on historical road segment data for the time and day of the year, and also the network of Dash drivers who utilize two-way connectivity to anonymously share their speeds and locations. Dash also integrates real-time traffic data from Inrix. Inrix provides both incident and flow data.

Also unique to Dash Express is the ability to perform Yahoo! Local search lookups, effectively creating a limitless POI database.

I’m fairly confident that most GPS manufacturers will be leveraging internet connectivity in their products and all the benefits that go along with it. Until then, Dash is first to the ‘Net party. Pricing for the Dash Express hasn’t been set yet. Dash reps told me there’ll be a monthly connectivity service fee, to be determined soon.