In June 2011, we launched the “AA Breakdown & Traffic” app, a product for the AA targeting modern Nokia devices (N8 and similar).
It’s a straightforward app to get you help when you’re on the road covering a few use cases:
- If you’ve broken down and you’re not quite sure where, the app will report your location into the AA before you call them – so they know exactly where you are, and can get a patrol to you as quick as possible. This is a great reassurance if you’re an AA member;
- The AA publish a pile of authoritative traffic information, which you can see overlaid on a map, or browse by road name; so before you set out on a trip, or during your journey, you can see where incidents are and avoid them;
- Owning a car involves keeping track of due dates for your MOT, insurance, and (if you’re a member) your AA membership. The app has a handy little reminder feature to make sure you don’t miss any of these… and links through to the AA mobile site to help you buy insurance if you need it.
You don’t need to be an AA member to use the app, and it’s a free download from the Ovi store.
We built it using Qt and QML, with a team at the AA providing the back-end services which we tied into. It was actually the first Qt app we worked on at FP, but the Glastonbury app we launched earlier this month made it into the store quicker.
Nokia were so pleased with the app that they published a lovely video about Roadwatch – starring of the AA and Doug Hoskins, the Lead Developer from FP.
So well done to the team: Doug Hoskins, John Revill and James Hugman on the code, Trevor May on design and Ben Carias and Paul Welsh on QA.