TresWash

TresWash — Uber for Car Washes.

Inspiration

South Africa has a 32.9% unemployment rate — and over 60% youth unemployment. Yet millions of car owners struggle to find reliable, convenient car washing services. I wanted to build something that solves both problems at once: a two-sided marketplace that creates flexible income for unemployed individuals while giving car owners an on-demand, professional service at their doorstep.

The Uber model works for rides — why not car washes?

What I Built

TresWash is a mobile car wash marketplace connecting car owners with nearby washers in real time. Key features include:

• Interactive map showing available washers within 8km using Google Maps
• Instant booking flow with equipment options and dynamic pricing
• Two-sided dashboards — separate experiences for Car Owners and Washers
• Rating & review system for quality assurance
• Dynamic pricing with a 15–20% platform commission model

How I Built It

I described the entire product to MeDo in plain language — the user roles, the map logic, the booking flow, pricing tiers, and UI style. MeDo scaffolded the full-stack app from that conversation, handling:

• JWT authentication with role-based access
• Google Maps integration with distance-based washer discovery (Haversine formula)
• RESTful API endpoints for bookings, profiles, and ratings
• Responsive dark-theme UI with glass morphism effects
• Demo data with 8 seeded washers across Johannesburg

What would have taken weeks of setup was running in hours.

Challenges

• Pricing logic: Balancing base price + equipment surcharge + platform fee required careful prompt iteration to get the calculation right
• Map UX: Getting the washer markers, radius search, and booking trigger to feel seamless took several MeDo conversation refinements
• Role separation: Ensuring owners and washers see completely different dashboards and flows without overlap

What I Learned

MeDo excels when you think like a product manager — the clearer and more structured your feature descriptions, the better the output. Breaking the app into discrete features (auth → map → booking → pricing → ratings) and building iteratively produced far better results than describing everything at once.

What's Next

• Ozow payment gateway integration (South African EFT)
• React Native mobile app
• Admin dashboard with analytics
• Multi-city expansion beyond Johannesburg

Built With

• axios
• django
• django-channels
• django-rest-framework
• google-maps
• medo
• react
• simple-jwt
• sqlite
• tanstack-query
• typescript
• vite