Show HN: I built a navigation app that displays weather along the route

13•vkatluri•2d ago

Hello HN,

I live in northern part of USA where winters are snowy. Whenever I took long trips, I always wondered what the weather along the route is going to be. For those who live in northern USA, you know weather can change frequently, so when you're traveling matters a lot, not just the route.

To solve this problem for myself, I built https://navimodo.com/. NaviModo calculates the route, and then checks weather along the route based on your start time, and displays weather along the route. Change start time, and the whole thing is recalculated.

I am not expecting any commercialization for this, just wanted to scratch an itch, and just did it. I have ideas for adding additional features (suggestions for when to take breaks based on bad weather, auto-suggestion of start time to avoid bad weather, etc.,) but will add more as time goes by.

Any feedback is welcome!

Comments

magesh_magi1•2d ago

I've applied for a patent for this very idea easily 10 years back but didn't get past my company. I've faced the issue when I travel from my office to home easily 1 hour journey without knowing when it'll rain where.

Good execution. How accurate it'll be within city

vkatluri•2h ago

Not very accurate if it's short distances. What challenges did you face with the patent application?

big_toast•23h ago

I immediately did SF to Reno through sacramento and south lake tahoe. Wildly different even in four hours.

A URL that persists the entered route might be desirable (especially to demo here). Otherwise I'm sure the additional features are endless.

vkatluri•2h ago

Thanks for the feedback. When you say wildly different, was the weather different? Or did the application behave differently? I will definitely consider sticky URLs!

doctoboggan•1h ago

I’ve wanted something like this, but optimized for star gazing during road trips. I’d love for your tool to be able to tell me the best place stop along my route taking into account my expected travel location, light pollution, cloud cover, moon position, etc.

I live and spend most of my time in cities, so long road trips are some of my bests chances for seeing good stars out in the country.

Would your tool be adaptable to this use case?

wlesieutre•34m ago

Similar concept to Weather on the Way, for the iOS folks

https://weatherontheway.app/

Looks good and I like being able to browse the map on a desktop, though for actual travel use the app with CarPlay support obviously has benefits

max8539•26m ago

Just a week ago, I asked ChatGPT to find me something and found Drive Weather iOS app, which I started using. I was also thinking of building something myself, but this one is good enough. Have you tried it or any other similar apps? Why did you decide to build a new one and why is it better? (Building just for fun is an option as well!)

addandsubtract•12m ago

I hate when there's "NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource" on my journey.