Carsurf

Inspiration

We were inspired to create a more sustainable environment. Promoting sustainability is something each member on our team cares about. We wanted to make a positive impact to make the world a better more sustainable environment.

What it does

Carsurf is a service that allows people to make sustainable transport decisions through carpooling. If more people carpool, the less carbon is burned to get people where they want to be. The less carbon that is burned, the more sustainable to environment becomes. Drivers and passengers input the location they are going to and the app matches the users going to the same location and facilitates carpooling between the parties.

How we built it

Our front end consisted mainly of React that dynamically renders HTML and CSS files. We integrated the front end with Node.js as our backend and Firebase as our database to build Carsurf.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into the challenge of getting our user authentication to work. We also took a look at the Google Maps API for Javascript, but we had trouble figuring out the documentation for the API that integrates the Google Maps API with React, so we ultimately have to scrap that from the project. We were also fairly new to using Firebase, so many of our troubles came from our lack of understanding of how it works and our inability to query it properly. The routing system was difficult to set up, and for many of us, it's the first time that we worked on a team of more than two people committing to a codebase with five people. I think due to this, communication was a natural challenge for us.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Many of us stayed up very late to work on the project, and we are overall just amazed by how dedicated we can be towards such a project. Although we ran into many challenges, we are definitely proud of being able to complete this project within the given time limit.

What we learned

We learned about the problems related to sustainable transport and how to solve them. As a team, we definitely got more familiar with React and Firebase and because of what was mentioned above, communication.

What's next for Carsurf

We want to implement a google map to show the location the user and driver are at in real time during their ride. We also would like to implement a google map to help the user and driver find each other through their location.

Built With

• css3
• express.js
• firebase
• firebase-auth
• firebase-firestore
• google-maps
• html5
• javascript
• node.js
• react
• tailwind.css