Hello, Rovaro: what we're building, and why

If you've ever led a group drive, you know the drill. Someone misses the turn. The group chat is unreadable at sixty. Three cars are following three different satnavs to the same cafe, and the one person who knows the good road is at the back. By the time everyone regroups, the best stretch is behind you.

That's the problem Rovaro exists to fix. Not the driving — the driving is the point — but everything around it that turns a great day out into a logistics exercise.

The website plans; the app drives

The idea is a clean split. Everything you'd do at a desk — finding a drive, picking a route, lining up the crew — happens on this website. Everything you'd do behind the wheel happens in the app, built around one rule: eyes on the road.

• Plan — browse events, pick a curated route between real public places, bring your crew.
• Drive — open the app, tap CONVOY, share a six-character code. Everyone's on one live map, with voice a single press away. No account, no password.
• Share — every drive lands in your journal, on your phone. Who sees it, and whether it leaves at all, is your call.

What's actually in the app

We're wary of roadmap-as-marketing, so here's what's real today, in the build we're testing:

• A live convoy map — every car moving in real time, with per-driver ETAs to the shared destination.
• Push-to-talk to the whole convoy, relayed live and never recorded.
• Safety pins the group sees instantly — a hazard ahead, a regroup point, or SOS if someone breaks down.
• Background sharing, so your car stays on the map with the phone in a cradle or the screen off — and stops the moment you leave the convoy.
• Drive memories — the route, the crew and the photos pinned along it — plus routes you can publish for others to download and drive.
• Clubs and meets for the people you drive with every week, and lap timing at approved track venues.

It's free to download and free to join a convoy. You don't need an account to drive with your friends.

The rules we won't bend

A few decisions were made early and won't move, because they're what make the rest safe to build.

• Eyes on the road. Set up before you move; voice is hands-free; anything that needs the screen is for a passenger.
• Real places only. Public routes start, break and finish at verified public places — a cafe, a circuit, a car park. Never someone's home.
• Private by default. Your live location goes to your convoy only, only while you're in it, and your speed is never stored or shared.
• Nothing broadcast. Convoys and clubs are join-by-code — no public directory, no feed of strangers, no ads, and your data isn't for sale.

A published route is a plan — a set of stops others can drive — never a record of anyone's actual journey.

— The one line that explains most of our design decisions

Where we are

The app is in final testing, coming to iOS and Android together at launch. This website is live now: the events board, the route library and a full walkthrough of how it all works, with a holding page out front while we finish. Accounts that sync across your devices, self-serve club creation and letting cafes and circuits claim their Hub are next — but we'll write about those when they're real, not before.

Come along for the ride

If you drive with a crew, leave your email below and we'll send you one message the day we launch. If you run drives, meets or track days, get in touch and we'll get your event on the board early. And if you know someone who's forever at the back of the convoy — send them this.