Nomad

Nomad
Features
Navigation

Inspiration

Imagine you're on a road trip with friends or family, and you suddenly crave a good place to eat. Where do you even begin your search? How do you determine which restaurants are conveniently located along your route?

Common scenarios we’ve all faced:

Each person in the car finds their own suggestion, but no one can finalize one.
The recommended gas stop is 15 minutes away, inconveniently on the opposite side of the highway.

These challenges inspired us to create Nomad—a one-stop solution for road-trippers to find custom stops, plan efficient routes, and make the most of their adventures.

What it does

Plan a Trip

Users can plan trips in advance by adding custom stops filtered to their personal requirements—whether they’re looking for restaurants, rest stops, hotels, shopping, activities, or landmarks.

For added convenience:

Users can rely on our built-in AI road-trip planning assistant, Atlas, to automatically plan stops for them.
They can also find inspiration by discovering trips shared by the Nomad community and add those itineraries to their own plans.

Navigate a Trip

Nomad makes navigation seamless with:

Real-time location tracking using SwiftUI’s CoreLocation framework.
A clean map UI powered by MapKit, displaying map markers, route lines, and user icons.
Dynamically updated routes tailored to users' needs powered by AI, ensuring that stops can be added or adjusted mid-navigation.

Relive Memories

Look back on your trips with Nomad Memories, which offers:

A summary of key stats and stops from your journey.
The ability to highlight moments by adding photos to your trip overview.

How we built it

Frontend

We used SwiftUI to design the app's intuitive user interface, including the map view, user trip planner, and memory features. CoreLocation helps track users' live locations, dynamically updating their map position in real-time.

Backend

The core navigation features are powered by Mapbox, which provides:

Efficient route generation using current coordinates and planned stops.
Turn-by-turn directions, complete with highway icons, maneuver types, distances, and time estimates.
Dynamic route alterations, enabling users to add or change stops mid-navigation seamlessly.

Data Storage

We utilized Firebase and Firebase Storage to handle:

User Data: Including personal information, and trip history.
Trips Data: Storing all details about planned trips, such as stops, routes, and timings, etc
Images: Allowing users to upload and save memories associated with their trips.
Stops Data: Maintaining all information about linked stops for seamless navigation and recommendations

AI-Powered Trip Planner

Our road-trip assistant, Atlas, is powered by ChatGPT, which queries Yelp for information about stops. Users can filter stops by categories like restaurants, hotels, or landmarks to fit their preferences. Atlas can also be accessed by voice on the go to allow you to go hands free while finding recommendations quickly.

Stop Recommendations

To personalize the trip-planning experience, we integrated Yelp’s API to gather details about potential stops and rank them based on user-defined criteria such as proximity, category, price, and rating.

What's next for Nomad

Exciting plans are in store for Nomad as we aim to take it to the next level!

Scaling Up

Our goal is to release Nomad on the App Store, making it accessible to road-trippers everywhere. We've also prototyped how the app would look on CarPlay and are working toward seeking development approval from Apple to bring Nomad seamlessly into the in-car experience.

Future Enhancements

We envision expanding Nomad’s functionality with features that elevate the road-trip experience:

Collaborative Trip Planning: Allow users to plan trips together in real time, making group travel seamless and fun.
Photo Recap Suggestions: Leverage AI to automatically suggest photos users might want to add to their trip recaps, creating beautiful memories effortlessly.
Music Integration: Add compatibility with Apple Music and Spotify to curate the perfect road-trip playlist, fully immersing users in the journey.
Scenic Routes: Introduce an option to suggest scenic routes, ensuring road-trippers can enjoy breathtaking views along the way.
Bug Fixes: Continue refining the app with ongoing bug fixes and performance improvements to deliver the best user experience possible. We’re excited to bring these features to life and make Nomad the ultimate companion for every road trip!