DriveWise

Inspiration

Car shopping is often confusing and stressful. Many people struggle to understand financing terms, choose between buying or leasing, or find the right trim that fits their lifestyle and budget. The idea for DriveWise came from wanting a simple voice assistant that could explain these options clearly and guide users toward the best decision without pressure.

What it does

DriveWise acts as a friendly voice assistant that helps users explore car purchase and lease options based on their credit score, income, monthly budget, and feature preferences. It compares loan and lease terms, estimates monthly payments, total cost, and depreciation, and recommends Toyota trims that match the desired features. It can even verify likely loan terms by checking with a bank representative before presenting options. The goal is to help users make confident financial and vehicle decisions through a natural conversation.

How we built it

The system was built using the OpenAI Agent SDK. It combines several helper agents that handle specific tasks. One agent collects financial information and user preferences. Another calculates loan and lease payments. A third agent maps requested features to the correct Toyota trims and packages. A research agent searches for current specifications and updates. Voice functionality was added through ElevenLabs to create natural conversation. The backend was developed with Flask and Python, and the interface uses Next.js and Tailwind. Firebase stores chat history and user data.

Challenges we ran into

It was difficult to find reliable data for current interest rates because banks update them frequently. We addressed this by adding a verification step with a teller or API lookup. Another challenge was mapping user requests such as “lane assist” or “heated seats” to the correct Toyota terminology without errors. Designing accurate and transparent lease and loan calculations for different terms was also complex. Finally, balancing quick voice responses with multi-step data processing required careful optimization.

Accomplishments that we’re proud of

We built a complete voice assistant that can take a few spoken details and turn them into clear financial comparisons. We achieved accurate mapping between user feature requests and official Toyota trims. We also created detailed breakdowns of total cost, buyout values, and depreciation in a way that users can easily understand. Most importantly, the experience feels personal and trustworthy.

What we learned

We learned that users value clarity and transparency more than anything else in financial tools. They want to know why they are getting certain numbers and what those numbers mean for them. We also learned how important it is to normalize user language into structured data and to design responses that sound human while staying factual. Voice agents work best when they are direct, simple, and conversational.

What’s next for DriveWise

We plan to integrate more lenders for accurate real-time rate comparisons. We also want to connect live car inventory so users can see available vehicles that match their configuration. Future updates will include multilingual support, insurance and maintenance estimates, and a mobile app experience that lets users share their DriveWise summary directly with a dealer to schedule a test drive.