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 uses a Microsoft Xbox running Xebian Linux, but all software and hardware designs will work on typical personal computers running any Linux distribution.