Introduction

DashBox is a set of open-source software and hardware projects designed for automotive computing purposes. The project was started as a final-year Engineering project at Carleton University. Throughout the project, the focus has been on simplicity and human factors, especially concerning safety.

Current car-computing devices are generally not very powerful or expandable: they are very integrated and have a very closed architecture. In many ways they are little more than a PDA (personal digital assistant) built into the dashboard. From a systems point-of-view, they are simple devices fulfilling the role of clients for simple tasks.

This project aims to take the opposite viewpoint. Whereas car computing traditionally uses embedded hardware, DashBox uses off-the-shelf computer components. A closed architecture is replaced with the most widely deployed open architecture, Linux. Whereas traditional solutions are not expandable, DashBox can accommodate any number of software and hardware extensions.

The test implementation is using a Microsoft Xbox running Xebian Linux, but all software and hardware designs on this page will work on typical personal computers running any Linux distribution.

Download

The preliminary version of DashUI, as submitted for the project, can be downloaded here.

Project Documentation

As a university project, DashBox's design principles are thoroughly documented. The following files are online:

• Project Proposal
• Slide Presentation (status report)
• Final Report

The final report is the most informative, containing safety research, design philosophies, and anything else that makes this project unique.

Contact

DashBox is designed and maintained by Pat Suwalski. I can be reached via eMail: .