Autonomous Car Wash App
Self-service car wash app
An iOS and Android app for unstaffed, autonomous car wash stations, covering flows such as finding a station, starting a wash and paying.
This project is a mobile app built for autonomous, meaning unstaffed, car wash stations. I, Berke Özyaşar, developed this iOS and Android app with React Native for one of our clients. Since I don't share the client's name, I describe the project here in general terms.
Why a mobile app
At a car wash station with no attendant, the machine is the user's only point of contact. With token or card-based systems, payment, program selection and time tracking are not always clear to the user. Turning the phone into the station's interface simplifies that experience: users see what to do step by step on screen, and the business can monitor its stations remotely.
Flows the app covers
An app like this moves the user's whole journey onto the phone. In this project, I worked on flows such as finding a station, starting a wash and paying:
- Finding nearby stations and viewing station details
- Starting a wash from the phone
- In-app payment
Technical approach
I developed the app with React Native from a single codebase for both platforms. The part that really needs care in projects like this is keeping the steps on the phone in sync with the physical process at the station: when a user starts a wash, the status the app shows must match the machine's actual state, and if the connection drops or a payment is left incomplete, the user must be able to see clearly what happened. When designing the interface, I built around that principle: giving the user clear feedback at every step.
I have other experience with apps that talk to physical devices too, such as the printer integration in the TCT warehouse app. For a similar automation or device-connected app, take a look at automation systems and mobile app development.
