Turas Reviews and Details

Questions & Answers

1. What's the story behind Turas?

   I'm a solo developer in Ireland. Learners here wait around 12 weeks for a driving test, a retest costs €85, and many spend that time driving the same few roads near home. The test, though, happens on the roads around the test centre: its roundabouts, lane choices and speed changes.

   The RSA doesn't publish test routes, and the tester picks one on the day. So I recorded routes driven on real tests, matched them to OpenStreetMap roads, checked each one by hand, and built an app that guides learners round them with a voice. I made a point of labelling every route by where it came from and never promising a pass. "Turas" is Irish for journey.

2. What makes Turas unique?

   Every route says where it came from. Of 274 routes at 23 Irish test centres, 185 were recorded on real driving tests and are labelled "From real tests"; the rest are labelled "Practice route". The app never claims to know which route the tester will pick, because nobody can: the tester chooses on the day.

   It also works like a proper sat nav rather than a map with lines on it. A voice calls out every roundabout exit, the lane to be in, speed-limit changes and the likely spots for the reverse around a corner, turnabout and hill start, before you reach them. It guides you back if you miss a turn, the voice works offline, and the next turn shows on CarPlay, the lock screen and the Dynamic Island, so nothing needs a tap while driving.

3. Why should a person choose Turas over its competitors?

   Three reasons. First, honesty: each route is labelled "From real tests" or "Practice route", so you know what you are practising, and the app makes no promise about passing. Second, it is built for driving, not browsing: spoken directions given early, lanes and roundabout exits called out, rerouting if you go off the route, CarPlay and an offline voice. Third, the pricing suits how learners use it: a Centre Pass is a one-off payment for 30 or 60 days that never renews, so there is nothing to remember to cancel after your test.

   It also covers the rest of test prep in one place: study cards for road signs, Rules of the Road and the car checks, test-day guides, and a planner that shows the current wait at your centre.

4. How would you describe the primary audience of Turas?

   Learner drivers in Ireland preparing for the car (category B) driving test, most of them aged 17 to 25 and waiting weeks for a test date. The second audience is the accompanying driver, often a parent, who sits in on practice drives and wants to know where to go without giving directions. Driving instructors who want their students to practise the roads around the test centre between lessons are a third.

5. Which are the primary technologies used for building Turas?

   • Swift and SwiftUI, with The Composable Architecture
   • MapKit for maps, CarPlay for the in-car screen
   • ActivityKit for Live Activities on the lock screen and Dynamic Island
   • On-device speech (AVSpeechSynthesizer), so the voice works offline
   • StoreKit for in-app purchases
   • OpenStreetMap road data (ODbL) and a TypeScript data pipeline that matches recorded routes to it
   • Backend: TypeScript, Fastify, Prisma and PostgreSQL on Railway
   • Website: Astro, with Amplitude for analytics

6. Who are some of the biggest customers of Turas?

   • Learner drivers in Ireland preparing for the car driving test
   • Parents and accompanying drivers supervising practice