But is the problem that the world doesn't have a good road-trip-planning app, or that the world doesn't take enough road trips to warrant such an app? That's more of Garry's point, at least as I interpreted it. Lots of people have travel-planning needs at the moment they're planning travel. Unfortunately, most people don't travel all that often.
How often do you take road trips like this one? More than once a year? Monthly? Weekly? If you can convince me that there is a large addressable market full of people who take weekly or monthly road trips, I'll grant you that someone needs to spend some cycles making a better road trip app.
Now, this isn't to say that it's not a real problem. Clearly it is. Case in point: you're taking a road trip, and the apps you've looked through suck. You'd love something better. As would others. Fair. So perhaps the ideal solution here is for someone to make a better road trip planning app on the side, as a hobby. It's probably not a big enough market to warrant a startup. The use case is too specific and too infrequent to build a viable, fast-growing business model around.
No disagreement here. I ended with a question as to whether there's a market; I don't know that there is.
AAA apparently has a road trip planner that's only available to members. That's one business model. :)
TripAdvisor could offer something to help promote their site. As I said above, a strong developer could crank out something better than most existing alternatives with a small time commitment.
A hobby app might be the right speed. Some suggestions I got above might end up being "good enough", though.
How often do you take road trips like this one? More than once a year? Monthly? Weekly? If you can convince me that there is a large addressable market full of people who take weekly or monthly road trips, I'll grant you that someone needs to spend some cycles making a better road trip app.
Now, this isn't to say that it's not a real problem. Clearly it is. Case in point: you're taking a road trip, and the apps you've looked through suck. You'd love something better. As would others. Fair. So perhaps the ideal solution here is for someone to make a better road trip planning app on the side, as a hobby. It's probably not a big enough market to warrant a startup. The use case is too specific and too infrequent to build a viable, fast-growing business model around.