CarKeep

I was in Japan, building apps on my own. I didn't know anyone in Saudi Arabia. Someone in Saudi Arabia found an app I had made by myself in Japan. Someone introduced it in Arabic. But what truly made me happy wasn't simply that someone had introduced the app. They didn't just follow the way I had imagined presenting it. They chose the screenshots themselves. They explained in their own words what kind of app it was. They decided for themselves what needed to be shown so people would understand it. And somehow, their explanation was clearer than mine. It was my app, but when I saw the way they presented it, “So this is how you show it so people understand.” I was the one who learned something. ## Then, through that connection, a different person asked for “an app that remembers” A different person in Saudi Arabia sent me a DM in English. Car service. Parts replacement. Fuel. Insurance. They asked if I could make an app for things like that. I wrote back honestly: > I don't know cars very well Then I asked: **What are you struggling with most right now?** Then one phrase came back. > App you can remember about your car **An app that can remember things about your car.** Then CarKeep could remember those things. You don't have to keep everything in your head. When you need it, just look at CarKeep. Maintenance, for example, every three months. By mileage, 5,000 km. 10,000 km. The English messages from there became Swift variables here. They became screens. They became conditional branches in the code. # The incident ## “Where is the fuel record?” They actually used it through TestFlight. **Where is the fuel record?** **It was genuinely missing from the Maintenance screen.** I had looked at the screens. I had written the code. I had made the build. And yet I had missed it. The person in Saudi Arabia found it because they actually used the app. In reality, **they were also finding things I couldn't see and helping CarKeep.** Ask. Build. Let someone use it. Get something wrong. Fix it. Send it again. **Because the other person actually used the app, the code changed.** ## I began to see one person's life Three months. 5,000 km. 10,000 km. 95-octane gasoline. Insurance renewal. Arabic. TestFlight. One sentence: “Where is Fuel?” In a place that had once been only on the far side of a map, I began to see one person's life. ## Before CarKeep and after CarKeep One change belongs to the person using it. ### Before **I have to remember all of this myself.** ### After **When I need it, I can just look at CarKeep.** But there is another Before / After. This one belongs to me, the person who made the app. ### Before I had begun to see that there were real people behind the name “Saudi Arabia.” But I still didn't know how this person lived. ### After CarKeep now contains **things that would never have been there if I had built it entirely on my own.** And maybe, after CarKeep, **I'm no longer the same kind of maker I was before.** Main features • Garage for managing multiple vehicles • Maintenance, parts, fuel, and insurance records • Date, mileage, cost, quantity, notes, photos, and file attachments • Set what comes next by date and/or mileage • Repeating reminders and local notifications • iCloud sync • ZIP backup and restore • In-app switching across 50 languages CarKeep does not diagnose your vehicle or decide manufacturer maintenance schedules for you. You decide. It started with one person's **“I want an app that can remember things about my car.”** That was the HELP. While I was building it, I was helped too. I think CarKeep is still continuing that story.