Vancod for Software Solutions

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I'm an executive at Car Nebula for Automotive Technology

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Car Nebula upgrades your car's technology without replacing the car. Most vehicles on the road have a head unit that feels years behind the phone in your pocket: cluttered screens, slow menus, and no easy way to see what matters while driving. Car Nebula replaces that experience with a clean, modern, personal one, running on the hardware you already own. Drivers get a single dashboard that brings navigation, music and live information about their car together in one place, designed to be read at a glance so their attention stays on the road. They can arrange it to fit their taste and their habits, and every driver in the household can have their own look. The result is a car that feels newer and more connected, and a drive that feels calmer, safer and more enjoyable. We built it to be simple. Installation is quick, setup is guided, and it works across many of the head units already in cars today, so there's no costly hardware swap and no need to buy a new vehicle to get a modern experience. Regular updates keep improving it over time, so the car doesn't age the way a fixed system does. Our goal is to give everyday drivers the kind of technology that usually comes only with a new, expensive car, and to make it accessible to anyone with the car they already have.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire VANCOD to accomplish?

• Build a complete mapping and routing stack on Valhalla, so we control the quality of the maps and routes our drivers rely on.
• Develop a navigation engine that gives fast, accurate turn-by-turn guidance, easy to follow at a glance.
• Add lane-level guidance, so drivers know which lane to be in before a junction or exit, with fewer missed turns and less stress.
• Create advanced navigation algorithms for smarter routes and smoother, more reliable guidance on real roads.
• Make navigation work offline, so it keeps working in tunnels, mountains and areas with poor coverage

SOLUTION

How did you find VANCOD?

Referral

Why did you select VANCOD over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from VANCOD were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

SCOPE OF WORK VANCOD was engaged to design, build and deliver the complete navigation system for Car Nebula, from the underlying map data and routing to the guidance drivers see on screen.

The work covered engineering, integration into the Car Nebula app, and testing on real head units and roads.

KEY DELIVERABLES

1. Mapping and routing stack: A Valhalla-based infrastructure that calculates routes and gives us control over map and route quality. 
2. Navigation engine: Fast, accurate route calculation and turn-by-turn guidance, built to be read at a glance.
3. Lane-level guidance: Lane data and logic that show drivers which lane to take before a junction or exit.
4. Advanced navigation algorithms: Smarter routing and smoother, more reliable guidance on real roads.
5. Offline navigation: Downloadable map and routing packs that keep navigation working without a signal.
6. App integration: The full navigation stack built into the Car Nebula experience and checked on real devices.

OUTCOME

Drivers get premium, reliable navigation on the head unit already in their car, with no new hardware, and Car Nebula owns a navigation system it can keep improving. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

MEASURABLE OUTCOMES:

(1) Complete navigation system delivered: the full stack was built and integrated into the live Car Nebula app, including mapping and routing, navigation engine, lane-level guidance, advanced navigation algorithms and offline maps.

(2) Offline navigation achieved: navigation now works with no signal, using downloadable map and routing packs, which was not possible before the project.

(3) Lane-level guidance introduced: drivers can now see which lane to take before a junction or exit, a feature usually found only in new, premium cars.

(4) No new hardware required: all of this runs on the head units drivers already own, so there is no extra hardware cost for them.

(5) Control over our own navigation: Car Nebula now owns its mapping and routing stack, so we can keep improving route quality, add regions and ship updates without depending on a third party.

(6) Faster time to market: the project delivered a premium navigation experience in a fraction of the time an in-house build would have taken. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

VANCOD managed the project in clear stages, starting with the mapping and routing foundation, then the navigation engine, then lane-level guidance, advanced algorithms and offline maps. Each stage was delivered as working software inside the Car Nebula app and tested on real head units and real roads before the next stage began, so progress was visible throughout and problems were caught early. Key deliverables were completed and shipped, and the full navigation system is live in the product. VANCOD responded quickly to our needs: when real-world testing showed issues or when our priorities changed, they adjusted the plan and fixed problems promptly. Communication was direct and frequent, and we always knew the status of the work. The result is a navigation system that meets what we set out to build.

What was your primary form of communication with VANCOD?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

What impressed us most about VANCOD is how much they achieve with how small they are. They are a tiny team, yet the quality of their work is unmatched, and their engineering capability is far stronger than that of much larger companies. They built an entire navigation stack, including the mapping and routing engine, lane-level guidance and advanced algorithms, which is work that normally takes a large team and a large budget. They combine deep technical skill with a sharp focus on what drivers actually need, so the result is not only technically strong but also fast, reliable and easy to use. Working with a small, focused team also means direct communication, quick decisions and real ownership of the outcome. For a company of their size, the depth and quality of what they deliver is rare.

Are there any areas for improvement or something VANCOD could have done differently?

VANCOD delivers exceptionally fast, and at times faster than we can review. Our own review and testing sometimes took longer than their development, so the bottleneck was on our side rather than theirs. If anything, the improvement is on our side: we could prepare our review process and feedback schedule better to keep pace with them. On their side, delivering in smaller batches or with short written summaries of what changed would make each delivery even easier to review. We would gladly work with them again.