/ Road&Rally

Car meetups and group rides navigation app

Automotive

Services:

Mobile App Development

MVP Development

Quality Assurance

Third-party integration

The team

2 Backend developers

2 Frontend developers

2 QA engineers

UI/UX designer

Project manager

DevOps engineer

Technologies

Sidekiq

Redis

Postgres

Ruby on Rails

Integrations

SendGrid

Wise

Flywire

Timeline: July 2024 — Ongoing

Website: www.roadnrally.com

Road&Rally was founded by a car enthusiast and designer who wanted to bring his vision of connected driving experiences to life. As both the client and creative force behind the project, he envisioned an app that would blend sleek functionality with the thrill of group rides — where drivers could plan routes, organise events, and share the excitement of the open road.

His goal wasn’t just to build another car navigation app but to create a platform that captured the spirit of automotive culture, whether for casual weekend cruises or high-energy rallies. With a designer’s eye for detail, he provided the visual direction and user experience concepts, while our team handled the technical execution to bring his ideas to reality.

While typical automotive app development services excel at individual route planning, they struggle with coordinated movement — an important requirement for car enthusiasts who want to ride together. The technical constraints included maintaining precise location synchronization across multiple devices, ensuring reliable performance in areas with poor connectivity, and delivering smooth operation even during high-speed driving scenarios.

What truly set this project apart was merging technical functionality with an engaging user experience. The client insisted on an interface that would resonate with driving enthusiasts while handling real-time data. Creating this shared ride app required solving engineering challenges and crafting an intuitive platform that would enhance rather than interfere with the joy of group driving adventures. The solution needed to feel natural and simple at the same time.

The creation of this specialized ride app started with MVP development in July 2024. By October 2024, we launched the first live version in the Apple Store, featuring core navigation functionality that solved the key problem — ensuring all drivers in a group followed identical routes instead of getting different "optimal" paths from standard GPS apps. Users could create custom routes with multiple checkpoints and share them with friends.

After MVP release, we delivered several key iterations:

Q4 2024.
UX improvements and component refinements based on real user feedback from test drives

Q4 2025.
UX improvements and component refinements based on real user feedback from test drives

Currently (Q2 2025)..
Developing a comprehensive events system that allows organizing and managing group rides.

This car ride app has evolved from basic synchronized navigation to a complete platform for car ride lovers. Our QA team tested functionality and connectivity during actual commutes and validated every feature with our client, who further tested the solution during real car meetups in South Carolina. User-centric development and a proven, real-life automotive app testing approach make this app truly stand out.

User role

Admin
The app includes administrative oversight for managing user accounts, monitoring event activity, and ensuring platform stability. Admins handle technical configurations and analyze usage patterns to improve the best car navigation app experience for all users.
Event organizer
Organizers power this custom navigation app by creating paid events. Their subscription unlocks tools to design multi-stop routes, set ticket prices, manage participant lists, and track groups in real time — all while ensuring every driver follows identical navigation paths.
Driver
Drivers experience why this new car ride app gets groups right. They can purchase event access through integrated payments, join coordinated rides with synchronized navigation, and maintain connections even in offline areas. The app solves the universal group drive problem — keeping everyone on the same route instead of splitting up due to different GPS suggestions.

Key features

/ Features

Synchronized group navigation

The foundation of this ride app is its real-time route synchronization engine. Using Mapbox technology ensures all participants in a driving group receive identical turn-by-turn directions — solving the core frustration where traditional navigation apps suggest different routes to each driver. The system automatically recalculates paths for the entire group if anyone takes a detour.

Event creation & ticketing

This share ride app allows organizers to package multiple routes into ticketed events. Premium features enable the creation of custom checkpoints and managing attendee lists. Participants gain access to synchronized navigation and real-time group positioning throughout the event.

High-speed offline mode

Designed specifically as an iOS car app for performance driving, it maintains accurate navigation at extreme speeds. The system caches routes and adjusts location polling dynamically based on velocity. When cellular service drops during rural drives, the app continues functioning seamlessly with preloaded maps and navigation.

Automotive app integrations

The automotive app integrations focus on enabling seamless monetization through Firebase-powered payment systems. The platform utilizes Apple's in-app purchase framework to handle subscriptions and event ticket sales. This integration supports both one-time event payments and recurring memberships for frequent participants.

Smart caravan management

More than just a basic car navigation app, it includes specialized tools for group drives. Features like automatic regrouping alerts, pit stop coordination, and speed-based position smoothing ensure caravans stay together without unnecessary stops or confusion.

Community route sharing

The smart ride app surfaces popular driving roads based on aggregated user data. Drivers can browse, rate, and save favorite routes shared by others in the community, complete with notes about road conditions, scenic viewpoints, and recommended stops.

Business outcomes

The successful launch of this iPhone car navigation app delivered what the automotive enthusiast community needed — a specialized tool that turns group drives into perfectly synchronized experiences. The client now operates a fully functional platform where organizers host 2 paid events monthly on average with 25+ participants each, and users reliably navigate together using identical routes, eliminating the "split group" GPS problem. Also, premium features generate revenue through Firebase-powered Apple subscriptions.

The technical foundation already handles the client's immediate needs while being built to scale for larger participant events. With its unique combination of social coordination and precision navigation — proven in real-world rallies — the client has a clear path to expand into major car gatherings targeting 1000+ participants.
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Looking ahead, our automotive app development will focus on scaling infrastructure to support larger communities while maintaining the app's signature reliability—whether for family-friendly cruises or high-performance driving adventures.

Client feedback

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I was most impressed by the quality of the end product.

While my ideas formed the basis for the work, they delivered a far more superior product than I imagined with greater flexibility and viability of features. They exceeded expectations so many times it got to the point I couldn't wait to see what they came up with next.

Dan Brooks

President, Krytter

See the project

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