Your region, and the flags at the top

Choosing a region

Region comes first, by continent:

• North America: the United States with your state or territory, Canada with your province or territory, Mexico with your state, or a country of Central America or the Caribbean.
• Europe: an EU country, among them France’s overseas regions such as French Guiana and Réunion; a UK nation, or a Crown Dependency or Overseas Territory such as Jersey or Gibraltar. Or elsewhere in Europe, Russia and Ukraine among them, with Greenland, the Faroes, Aruba, Curaçao and France’s Pacific islands too.
• Oceania: Australia with your state or territory, New Zealand with your region, or a Pacific country or territory.
• Asia: Japan with your prefecture, or South Korea with your province or city; the rest of Asia is still to come.

Most countries have their states, provinces, prefectures, regions, counties or parishes to choose from too (optional; a long list has a search, by name or code). A territory is listed with the country it belongs to, on the continent of that country’s capital, wherever it lies. Crimea and Sevastopol, contested, are listed under neither Ukraine nor Russia.

It sets your units, currency and how dates and times are written, and in the US your state picks the average fuel and electricity prices (in Canada your province, the average fuel price).

It’s optional (the empty Dash offers it, with the units under it); nothing is guessed from your phone, and without a region the app is in the units you pick, miles, gallons and US dollars until you do.

The flags at the top

Once chosen, its flags show at the top left of the Dash, History, Stats, Garage and Settings: your country’s, then your state’s, province’s, prefecture’s or UK nation’s (a Crown Dependency’s or territory’s own after the Union Flag). In the EU, the EU’s, then your country’s and your state’s. Tap them to change it.

New Zealand’s regions, most of France’s, Northern Ireland and the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands have no official flags of their own. New Zealand’s shows alone, and by default so does the UK’s, the region lists showing their codes (AUK, NIR) without a flag.

The app doesn’t have every state’s or province’s flag yet (Mexico’s, Spain’s, Italy’s, South Korea’s, Japan’s Hiroshima and Kagawa…, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands’ and the British Antarctic Territory’s), so there too the code shows alone.

Settings → Region → Northern Ireland’s flag can show the Union Flag, the Ulster Banner, the Irish tricolour, St Patrick’s Saltire or the Flag of Ulster with it instead (at the top, after the Union Flag, which never shows twice).

Which side of the road

Under the region you set (and your home region), Settings → Region says which side of the road it drives on, beside the round keep-left or keep-right sign. It’s from Wikipedia’s list of left- and right-hand traffic, each place that keeps left checked against other sources (the U.S. Virgin Islands keep left, Gibraltar keeps right).

Codes, and how places are shown

In the region lists each place’s code sits beside its flag (OK, QC, DE). The United Kingdom’s code is GB, its ISO country code.

Settings → Region (under How places are shown) can show UK instead, the code the EU and the UK’s own car stickers use. It offers that with your region (or your home region) in the UK or one of its territories, Ireland, or a Commonwealth country or its territories (Canada, Jamaica, Malta, Australia, Fiji…).

It then has the choice of Northern Ireland’s flag; anywhere else GB and no flag for Northern Ireland apply.

With your region (or your home region) in the Czech Republic or Slovakia, Settings → Region (How places are shown) can call it Czechia instead of the Czech Republic, everywhere the app names it. In the Czech Republic it can also show the regions’ letters from registration plates (A for Prague) instead of their ISO numbers (10).