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In this interview, we speak with Ben Parli, the creator behind Road Sorties, an innovative route planner and navigation app designed for driving enthusiasts. We discuss the platform's mission to optimize for scenic and curvy roads, transforming the journey itself into the destination.
What does Road Sorties do?
Road Sorties is a route planner and navigation app for people who care about the drive, not just the destination. Choose scenic roads or thrilling curvy roads, and the routing engine builds a journey that matches your style—great for weekend road trips or a quick fun drive. Search for stops along the way and add any with one tap, compare route options on the map, and get turn-by-turn navigation. Plan on the web, then navigate on iOS, or export your route to other apps and GPS devices. Now’s a good time for Road Sorties to exist because major navigation apps strictly prioritize the fastest or shortest paths, leaving a massive, unmet demand among road-trippers and driving enthusiasts who want technology that optimizes for the joy of the journey itself.
Who does Road Sorties serve?
Road Sorties is for people who enjoy driving as an experience, not just a way to get somewhere — road-trippers, families and driving enthusiasts (weekend cruisers, motorcyclists, scenic-drive lovers), plus EV, RV, and camping travelers planning multi-stop trips. As a newly launched consumer app, it doesn't have notable or enterprise customers yet; its users are individual drivers, not businesses.
What technologies were used in the making of Road Sorties? And why did you choose the ones most essential to your tech stack?
Although specific techstack details were kept under the hood, Road Sorties leverages specialized mapping and routing engines capable of calculating complex route variables like road curvature and scenic value. The architecture employs a flexible, cross-platform approach to seamlessly sync detailed trip planning on the web with real-time, turn-by-turn navigation on its native iOS application.
What is traction to date for Road Sorties? Around the web, who’s been noticing?
Currently in its pre-launch phase, Road Sorties is focusing on early distribution through its live web app, newly released iOS app, and active listings on platforms like IndieHackers. While traffic data is still gathering, early interest is being driven by targeted outreach to Reddit communities like r/roadtrip, where there is strong, organic demand for routing software that prioritizes the driving experience over sheer speed.
Road Sorties earned a 56.18 proof of usefulness score (https://proofofusefulness.com/report/road-sorties)
What excites you about Road Sorties's potential usefulness?
The best roads are too easy to miss. One of the most beautiful drives of my life — Colorado's Highway 128 along the Colorado River — I only found because a stranger tipped us off. Most people blow past drives like that on the interstate without ever knowing they're there. What excites me is making those experiences discoverable on demand: tell Road Sorties you want scenic or curvy roads, and it builds the route, finds the stops along the way, and navigates you there. It turns "the journey is the destination" from a nice saying into something you can actually plan.
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