Where the Truck

Where the Truck is your Alexa food truck finder. To find food trucks near you, just ask, "Alexa, Where the Truck?"

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Inspiration

Chuck and Elizabeth, co-founders of Bev Labs, love food trucks but were never able to find the trucks they love, at the right time and the right location. No one seemed to list their hours reliably. And if they posted on social media, there was no guarantee of finding them. There had to be a better way!

What it does

Where the Truck finds all participating food truck vendors and events in your given ZIP code. Just ask, "Alexa, Where the Truck?" and Alexa will give you the names, locations, addresses and operating hours of participating food trucks near you.

How we built it

We built it with Alexa, AWS, and the vendor web interface. We created a web portal so food truck vendors and event organizers can list the details about their locations and operating hours. That info is deposited into an Airtable database that is then accessed by the Alexa skill.

Challenges we ran into

Being able to filter the database for the details we needed. Creating the API and the URL protocol for filtering.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Getting the skill complete and working as we envisioned it.

What we learned

A whole lot about APIs, JavaScript, and how versatile Alexa can be. It's not just a platform for trivia and games!

What's next for Where the Truck

Continual refinements. Making it easier for users to find out where their nearby food trucks are. Make our skill less wordy and more direct. GAIN CUSTOMERS! Make money and allow food truck users an invaluable way to promote their business and get food fans to their windows.

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