Android Cab Booking App with Fare Estimate and Driver Tracking

Booking a cab by phone call leaves the rider guessing: the fare is unknown until the trip ends, the driver cannot be followed on a map, and no record of past trips. The Android Cab Booking App with Fare Estimate and Driver Tracking answers this by putting the whole trip in one app: pickup and drop entry, an upfront fare estimate before confirming, a live map of the approaching driver, and a history list of completed trips. Unlike a home-service booking app, which schedules a tradesperson for a time slot, this app books a vehicle for a journey: distance-and-time pricing from a stored rate card, and tracking as a moving position on a map rather than a status timeline. The estimate runs on the phone itself from that rate card, so the price appears instantly. This is an academic project build, not a production taxi marketplace: demo drivers, trips and fares are sample data, with no real-driver onboarding included.

Getting a cab without an app means negotiating the fare, waiting without knowing where the driver is, and having no trip record afterwards. Riders want three things before they commit: a price they can see, a driver they can follow, and a receipt of where they went. This app demonstrates all three in one Android build — booking, transparent fare estimation, live driver tracking and trip history — using a stored rate card and a simple nearest-driver assignment rule that a student team can build, test and explain end to end.

A rider's journey through the app runs end to end in five visible stages. The rider enters pickup and drop points and picks a vehicle type, and the app immediately computes an upfront fare estimate on the phone from its stored rate card — base fare plus per-kilometre and per-minute charges — so the price is known before confirmation. On confirmation, the request goes to the nearest available driver in the demo fleet; if none is available, the app says so plainly and offers a retry. Once a driver accepts, the tracking screen opens: the driver appears as a moving marker on a map with arrival time and distance remaining, and the trip status moves from Driver Assigned to In Trip at pickup. At the drop point the final fare is shown, the rider pays cash in the base build, and the completed trip is written to the history list for later review.

1. The rider enters a pickup point and a drop point and selects a vehicle type (Hatchback, Sedan or SUV).
2. The app computes the fare estimate on the phone from the stored rate card: base fare plus distance charge plus time charge, shown before confirmation.
3. On confirmation, the booking request is matched to the nearest available driver in the demo fleet; if no driver is available, the app shows "No drivers nearby" with a retry option.
4. The assigned driver's name, vehicle and rating are shown, and the tracking screen opens with the driver as a moving marker on a map.
5. The rider follows arrival time in minutes and distance remaining in kilometres as the driver approaches, and the status moves to In Trip at pickup.
6. At the drop point the final fare is displayed, the rider pays cash in the base build, and the trip status becomes Completed.
7. The trip — route, vehicle type, distance, duration, fare and status — is saved to the history list, where completed and cancelled trips can be reviewed.

Tech stack:

• Kotlin for Android
• Android Studio
• Firebase Realtime Database
• Firebase Authentication
• Google Maps SDK · stylised demo map
• Material Design components
• Room Database · local trip history
• Git

The app's strongest capabilities are its instant fare estimate, its live driver tracking, its nearest-driver assignment and its trip history. The fare estimate is computed on the phone from a stored rate card the moment pickup and drop points are entered, so the rider sees the price before confirming anything. Live tracking shows the assigned driver as a moving marker on a map with arrival time and distance remaining, turning an anxious wait into a visible approach. Driver assignment picks the nearest available driver from the demo fleet, and every finished or cancelled trip is kept in a history list with route, vehicle type, fare and status for later checking. Together, these capabilities cover the full rider journey from price check to trip record, while the no-driver-available message and the cash-payment scope keep the build honest about its limits.

• [Instant fare estimate] Entering pickup and drop points immediately shows an upfront fare from the stored rate card — base fare plus distance charge plus time charge — before the rider confirms the booking.
• [Live driver tracking on a map] After assignment, the rider follows the driver as a moving marker on a map, with arrival time in minutes and distance remaining in kilometres updating as the driver approaches.
• [Nearest-driver assignment] A booking request is matched to the nearest available driver in the demo fleet, and the rider sees that driver's name, vehicle and rating before the trip starts.
• [Trip history with status] Every trip is recorded with its route, vehicle type, distance, duration, fare and status — Requested, Driver Assigned, In Trip, Completed or Cancelled — so past travel can be reviewed.
• [Vehicle choice with per-km rates] The rider picks Hatchback, Sedan or SUV, each with its own per-km rate on the rate card, and the estimate updates instantly for the chosen vehicle.
• [No-driver-available handling] When no driver is available, the app shows a clear "No drivers nearby" message with a retry option instead of silently assigning a driver or hanging on a loading screen.
• [Cash payment on completion] The base build settles the fare in cash when the trip ends, keeping the payment flow simple and honest about what is actually implemented.

Implemented vs optional vs future scope: the 7 features above are in the base build. In-app card or UPI payment is an optional customization, not in the base build. Surge pricing during peak hours and driver-rating-based matching are future scope, not implemented.

• Complete Android app source code (Kotlin) with booking, fare estimation, tracking and history screens
• Working demo build with sample drivers, routes and trip history
• Firebase backend setup for driver availability and trip status
• Project report PDF (background, methodology, architecture, results, limitations)
• Project abstract PDF
• PPT presentation for final review
• Viva Q&A preparation document (fare logic, assignment rule, tracking flow, limitations)
• Setup and run instructions
• Request a quotation on WhatsApp: share this project name, the vehicle types and payment option you want, and your needed delivery date, and Projectech will confirm the scope, the price and the delivery timeline before the build starts.