Assistant

There's a moment every vanlife driver knows. You're on a motorway, both hands on the wheel, and you need to know something. How much did you spend on fuel this month? Where did you camp last time you were in this region? Is there a spot with electricity within twenty kilometres?

You can't look at your phone. You shouldn't stop. And you definitely shouldn't try to navigate an app while doing 80mph on a French autoroute.

That moment is exactly what the Vanlife Assistant voice assistant was built for. A natural, conversational interface to everything in your app — your finances, your manifest, your spots, your trip history — available hands-free, in the car, on the move, without touching a screen.

This isn't a generic AI chatbot. It's a purpose-built assistant that knows your van, your data, and your life on the road. Everything it knows about you lives on your device. Nothing leaves it.

Voice Assistant

Just ask.

Wake the assistant with a tap or a word and ask it anything about your data. No menus, no navigation, no hunting through screens. A natural question, a direct answer, back to the road.

"How much have I spent on fuel this month?"
"Where did I camp in Slovenia last summer?"
"What's in the under-bed storage?"
"Add washing up liquid to the whiteboard."
"Log thirty euros for groceries."
"How many Schengen days do I have left?"

These aren't scripted commands. They're the kinds of questions you actually ask — and the assistant understands them.

• Natural language queries across all app modules
• Finance, manifest, trips, spots, Schengen, weather, and more
• Log expenses, add whiteboard items, and create check-ins by voice
• Ask follow-up questions in context — the assistant remembers what you just asked
• Responds in plain spoken language — clear, direct, no jargon
• Works completely offline for queries against your on-device data

On-Device Machine Learning

Smart without the surveillance.

Most voice assistants send everything you say to a server somewhere. Your words, your questions, your data — processed in the cloud, logged, analysed. Vanlife Assistant does none of that.

The voice assistant runs on a custom machine learning model built specifically for vanlife queries and trained to understand the language of life on the road. It runs entirely on your device. Your questions never leave your phone. Your data never leaves your phone. The assistant gets smarter through design, not data harvesting.

You're parked in a remote valley with no signal. You ask the assistant where you put the gas regulator. It answers immediately — not because it called a server, but because the answer was on your device all along.

• Custom ML model trained specifically for vanlife queries
• Runs entirely on-device — no internet required for core functionality
• Your voice queries are never transmitted or stored externally
• Fast response times because there's no round-trip to a server
• Privacy by architecture, not just by policy

Natural Language Understanding

Say it however you'd naturally say it.

You shouldn't have to learn how to talk to your assistant. The natural language engine understands the way people actually speak — with context, with variation, with the slightly different phrasing you use at 7am versus 11pm after a long drive.

"What did I spend last week?"
"Show me my spending for the last seven days."
"How much have I gone through since Monday?"

Three different ways of asking the same thing. The assistant understands all of them.

• Handles natural variation in phrasing and word order
• Understands relative time references — yesterday, last week, this month, since Tuesday
• Context-aware follow-up questions — ask once, refine with a follow-up
• Understands vanlife-specific terminology naturally
• Handles multi-part queries — ask about fuel spending in France last month in a single question

Follow-Up Questions

A conversation, not a command line.

The best assistants don't just answer questions — they hold a conversation. Ask something, get an answer, then ask something related without starting from scratch. The assistant maintains context across a session so each exchange builds on the last.

"How much did I spend in France?"
"£847."
"How does that compare to Spain?"
"Spain was £623 over a similar period."
"What was the biggest expense in France?"
"Fuel — £312, across eleven fill-ups."

That's a conversation. Not three separate queries.

• Session context maintained across multiple questions
• Follow-up questions understood in relation to what came before
• Drill down into answers without repeating yourself
• Natural conversational flow that feels effortless in use

Apple CarPlay Integration

The road is no place to look at your phone.

CarPlay brings Vanlife Assistant to your dashboard — a clean, distraction-free interface designed for driving. The full voice assistant is available through CarPlay, meaning every query you can make on your phone you can make through your car's screen or with your voice, without touching your phone at all.

And the killer feature — spot finding on the move.

You're driving through an unfamiliar region and you need to find somewhere to sleep tonight. You say: "Find the nearest spot with electricity along my route." The assistant queries your dataset, finds the best matches, and hands off navigation to your mapping app. All without you touching a screen.

• Full voice assistant available through CarPlay
• Clean dashboard interface showing key app data at a glance
• Spot finding by voice — amenity, distance, and route proximity
• Seamless handoff to Apple Maps, Google Maps, or Waze for navigation
• Log expenses and check-ins by voice while driving
• Designed to keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel

CarPlay integration coming soon.

Siri Shortcuts & App Intents

Vanlife Assistant, built into iOS.

Beyond the in-app voice assistant, Vanlife Assistant is deeply integrated with iOS through Siri Shortcuts and App Intents. Trigger common actions from Siri, build automation shortcuts, and weave the app into your wider iPhone workflow.

"Hey Siri, log fifty euros for fuel in Vanlife Assistant."

Done. Without opening the app.

• Siri Shortcuts for common actions
• App Intents for deep iOS integration
• Build custom automation shortcuts in the Shortcuts app
• Trigger check-ins, expense logging, and queries from Siri
• Integrate with other apps through iOS automation

The Whiteboard

Your running list, always within earshot.

The Whiteboard is your van's notepad — shopping lists, things to do, items to pick up, reminders. Simple, fast, and fully voice-enabled. Add items while you're driving, check them off while you're shopping, clear the list when you're done.

"Add milk, gas canister, and cable ties to the whiteboard."

Three items added. You didn't stop driving. You won't forget them at the supermarket.

• Voice-enabled shopping and to-do lists
• Add, check off, and clear items entirely by voice
• Location triggers — get reminded of items when you arrive somewhere relevant
• Grocery aisle organisation for efficient supermarket runs
• Shared across your devices via iCloud

The voice assistant works offline for all queries against your on-device data. Weather queries and exchange rate lookups require an internet connection.

CarPlay integration coming soon — follow our progress at vanlifeassistant.app.

For full detail on any feature, visit the Help Desk.