Every Friday I try to share one of my favourite finds of the week – a web-site, tool or app that has impressed me.
My Friday Favourite this week is the Dash Smart Driving App.
Dash Smart Driving App
Dash is a free app for Android and iOS that connects your car to your smartphone and provides data such as trip logs, real-time feedback on your driving, access to vehicle diagnostics (learn what that warning icon on your dashboard means!) and other useful features such as the nearest petrol station.
Bluetooth On-Board Diagnostic
Dash connects your car to your Smartphone via a low-cost piece of Bluetooth hardware called an OBD (On-Board Diagnostic) module. The OBD connects to an industry standard socket in all modern cars, pairs with your Smartphones bluetooth, and can then transmit information about your cars engine, diagnostic info and real-time trip info.
The Bluetooth OBD unit I use is a Cheerlink Mini v2.1 which costs about £8/$10. Most generic Bluetooth OBD’s work with Dash too.
Driving Data
Dash is very easy to use, has a nice looking modern interface and as well as providing a ton of useful real-time info within the app while you are actually driving, Dash also logs information about your driving for analysis afterwards.
I’m already seeing some useful IFTTT recipes for Dash. Dash also connects to Android Wear Smartwatches.
Download Dash
Free to download, you can get Dash for Android from the Google Play store or Dash for iOS from the Apple AppStore.