There aren’t too many crowdfunding campaigns that appeal to me on more than a superficial level but Dashbot is the exception. The device is actually important as an option for the ongoing disaster of texting and driving that I have seen overrun the roads I drive on daily.
I would love to blame our society for becoming selfish, self obsessed, completely incapable of understanding that texting and driving is perhaps the greediest thing a person can do and is now responsible for 30% of car accidents. I would love to say that there is no text message, phone call or song you have to listen to that is so important that risking not only your own lives but other people’s as well is simply irrational… but with all my pleas and requests only a small fraction of people I know have stopped doing the above… The weird thing is a lot of my friends who do this are great people who are unselfish in virtually every other aspect of their lives and it appears the problem is they don’t seem to believe the consequence short of it actually happening.
This is where Dashbot comes in. Instead of being an angry, complaining, annoying person such as myself, they have managed to come up with a solution or at a minimum an option to let you keep your eyes on the road, where they belong.
Dashbot is essentially a voice controlled mini computer that allows you to keep your phone in your pocket while you drive. It connects to your phone via Bluetooth and controls your music, maps and texts with your voice so you can stay focused on what matters.
The look of the device and form factor is very cool and has a bit of a retro 80’s feel which I am a sucker for. It isn’t distracting in any way and the shape and size seems to look nice visually in the car they demo it in. I love the voice signal moving as it talks, even as a gimmick this would be a cool but it is so much more than that.
The way the information is portrayed is much easier to understand than traditional GSP or phone GPS. The entire Dashbot display turns in to a giant arrow pointing in the direction you need to go and guides you very specifically. The complicated screens on Google Maps and other GPS devices can sometimes become confusing in quick situations and be more of a detriment and distraction than a help, the Dashbot uses a much simpler approach that requires much less attention.
They even added in multiple voices you can download to give your Dashbot a completely different feel. Hopefully they come out with a Morgan Freeman version but I may fall asleep driving if that’s the case which is the opposite of the intended purpose.
The best part of this is the price. This little cool robot was pre-selling for only $49 USD on their campaign page although those are all sold out the package deal is still available which comes with an SD card and more for only $65 USD.
There is a ton of tech jargon on their site about the microphone technology and voice tech that they are using and if that’s something that interests you specifically I would jump over to their campaign page asap by clicking here.
Also check out this demo of the Dashbot in action!!!
They are doing amazing at the moment with over 1400 backers and close to $100 000 which is their goal and still have 28 days to go!!! This is a project I am glad to see do well and hope they reach and surpass their goal many times over in the coming weeks!
Visionary Male 