Ariad
Ariad by Durratek Solutions ← Durratek.solutions

Durratek Solutions  /  Navigation

Ariad — Decide. Drive. Arrive.

Voice-driven navigation with real-time toll analysis, fuel cost estimates, and smart route coaching — engineered for the road ahead.

Download APK Android 8.0+  ·  ~4 MB  ·  0.1.4 Beta Build
Features
🎙️

Voice Commands

Speak naturally to navigate, find stops along your route, or check toll options — completely hands-free.

🛣️

Toll Analysis

Compare toll vs. free routes side by side — time saved, exact cost, and a value rating before you commit.

⛽

Fuel Cost Estimates

Every route shows an estimated fuel cost based on your vehicle's MPG and current area fuel prices.

📍

Tap to Navigate

Tap any point on the map to instantly pull up directions — no search bar, no typing.

🔍

Route Corridor Search

Ask for gas, food, or coffee along your route and add a waypoint stop in one tap.

🔊

Neural Voice

Natural-sounding navigation instructions via ElevenLabs. Choose from multiple voices in Settings.

Patch Notes
0.1.4 Beta (patch) March 2026
  • Traffic indicator fixed — removed inaccurate dead-reckoning; traffic dot now reflects only live API data from periodic re-route checks.
  • No-toll reroutes fixed — when "Always Avoid Tolls" is set, off-route rerouting now correctly requests a toll-free route instead of hardcoding tolls-allowed.
  • Toll context in voice queries — Claude now has accurate toll pricing data when you ask about tolls mid-trip. No more phantom "no tolls save time" responses.
  • Removed 1000-foot checkpoint warning — the 305 m checkpoint announcement has been removed; only 2-mile and ¼-mile thresholds remain.
  • Trivial steps filtered — "Continue on" and "Head north" steps are silently skipped; no more unnecessary announcements for straight-ahead segments.
  • TTS: TPKE → Turnpike — standalone abbreviations like TPKE, TPK, EXPWY are now expanded before synthesis. Comprehensive abbreviation coverage.
  • TTS: decimal distances fixed — "0.5 miles" now says "half a mile"; other sub-one-mile distances say "point X miles" instead of "naught point X".
0.1.4 Beta March 2026
  • Tag vs. pay-by-mail toll rates — all 55 US toll roads now show real E-ZPass/TxTag/SunPass/FasTrak rates alongside cash/mail rates side-by-side. The app bolds whichever rate applies to you based on your transponder setting.
  • Toll transponder setting — new toggle in Settings (E-ZPass · TxTag · SunPass · FasTrak). Claude cites the right rate for your payment method.
  • Per-segment traffic overlay — live amber (slow) and red (stop-and-go) segments drawn on top of your route polyline using Routes API speed intervals.
  • Proactive JAM warnings — Claude announces heavy traffic up to 10 miles ahead without being asked.
  • Faster traffic checks — re-check interval reduced from 2 minutes to 90 seconds; alert threshold lowered to 2-minute delays.
  • Smarter reroute threshold — now offers rerouting when an alternate route saves 1+ minute (was 2 minutes).
  • 5-level traffic indicator — dot now shows Clear, Moderate, Heavy, and Severe states.
0.1.1 Beta March 2026
  • Google Play Billing integrated — the billing infrastructure is in place for subscription management. Product catalog queries and purchase acknowledgment are wired and ready for Play Store listing configuration.
  • Version moved to Beta — Ariad graduates from alpha to 0.1.0 Beta, reflecting feature-complete navigation, AI voice assistant, toll analysis, and real-time traffic.
A0.0.16 March 2026
  • Varied short-distance callouts — the 200 ft checkpoint no longer always says "coming right up." It now rotates through a set of casual phrases: "coming right up", "just ahead", "almost there", "any second now", and "coming up soon" — picked randomly each time so it doesn't feel like a broken record.
  • Search results sorted by proximity — autocomplete results (both typed search and voice search) now bias toward the driver's current location and sort nearest matches to the top. The Places API origin is set to the user's GPS fix so results within a few blocks outrank distant same-name matches.
  • Saved location names in voice — when navigating to a bookmark, Ariad now announces the user's saved label ("heading to Home", "you've arrived at Work") instead of the raw Google Places name or street address.
A0.0.15 February 2026
  • Route-only traffic color — removed the global Google traffic overlay that colored all roads on the map. The driver's active route is now the only color-coded element, making it instantly clear which way to go at a glance. The route line also gains a dark border outline so it pops against any background or road color.
  • Traffic level calibration — the traffic dot (green/amber/red) on the ETA was showing heavy congestion for minor delays. Thresholds now require a real impact: green below 2 min or 8% added time, amber up to 10 min or 35%, red only for significant congestion beyond that.
  • Traffic baseline fix — when Google returns a route without live traffic data, the app no longer compares against a zero baseline (which caused false heavy-traffic alerts on longer trips). Falls back to plain route duration for the comparison.
  • Casual short-distance callouts — under ¼ mile the voice no longer reads out an exact foot count ("In 200 feet…"). The 200 ft checkpoint now says something like "Turn right onto Oak Street — coming right up." Any other sub-quarter-mile instruction also uses natural phrasing instead of a precise number.
  • Road name TTS fix — city and street names starting with road-type abbreviations (Plano, Draper, Stanton, Avery, etc.) were being split and expanded by the text cleaner — "Plano" became "Place Ano". Fixed by scoping the concatenation-repair pass to uppercase-only joins, which is the only real pattern it was ever meant to catch.
  • Checkpoint diagnostics — added detailed per-tick logging (distance, announced set, threshold fired or skipped) to NavigationService so missed announcements can be traced from Logcat on the next test drive.
A0.0.14 February 2026
  • Checkpoint system revamp — the "heads up" entry announcement now fires 500 ft after completing a maneuver (not 1000 ft), followed by the 2-mile warning (for long steps), ¼-mile, and a new 200-foot final alert. The arrival block pre-marks all thresholds to prevent redundant callouts after reaching the destination.
  • Toll pill switch — the "Toll?" query button and the $ avoid-tolls FAB have been merged into a single, clearly-labeled "Tolls ON/OFF" pill toggle at the bottom of the screen during navigation. Toggling immediately reroutes to a toll-free or toll-allowed route as selected.
  • Accurate live ETA — remaining time now prorates the current step based on how far through it the driver is, so the ETA decreases continuously as you drive — not just at step transitions. A 30-second background tick also refreshes the traffic-level dot based on actual progress vs. the original schedule.
  • Live traffic layer on map — Google Maps real-time traffic is now overlaid on the map, showing road-by-road congestion in color (green/yellow/red) exactly where slowdowns are occurring ahead.
  • Cultural tidbits on reroute — when the app auto-reroutes due to a deviation, a fresh set of cultural tidbits is generated for the new route. Landmark and road facts are also expanded to include more compelling, specific details — not generic encyclopedic text.
  • Destination name in TTS — when navigating to a business or named place, Ariad speaks the place name (e.g., "Heading to Whataburger") instead of the street address. Residential addresses (starting with a house number) continue to use the street address.
A0.0.13 February 2026
  • Delayed post-maneuver announcement — the "next turn" callout now fires ~1000 ft (305m) after completing a maneuver, not immediately. The entry message is a brief local phrase (direction + road + distance) with no lane details; full details come at the ¼-mile mark as before.
  • Android TTS fallback — when ElevenLabs hits its quota or returns an auth error (HTTP 401/402/429), Ariad automatically switches to the device's built-in text-to-speech engine and notifies the driver. Voice guidance never goes completely silent.
  • TTS abbreviation fixes — "CO" now reads as "County Road", "RD" (all caps) reads as "Road", "TPKE"/"TPK" reads as "Turnpike". All road-type regexes are now case-insensitive so abbreviations are caught regardless of capitalization.
  • Directional bound expansions — "NB", "SB", "EB", "WB" in spoken instructions are expanded to "Northbound", "Southbound", "Eastbound", "Westbound".
  • Interchange clarity — Claude now always reads exit numbers aloud (e.g., "Exit forty-two Bravo") and expands N/S/E/W to full cardinal words in rewritten turn instructions.
  • No toll payment reminders — removed the "make sure you have a payment method ready" reminder from toll announcements. The driver knows how to pay.
  • POI voice & UI in sync — search results are now sorted by the same criteria (open status → detour time → rating) before being sent to Claude and displayed in the UI. Voice narration and the card list always refer to the same options in the same order.
  • Smarter POI query normalization — colloquial voice queries (e.g., "somewhere to pee", "I could use coffee") are run through Claude to produce a cleaner Places API search term before the corridor search runs.
  • Search bar false "unavailable" error removed — autocomplete failures (network blip, mid-word query) now silently show empty results instead of displaying a confusing error banner.
A0.0.12 February 2026
  • New app icon — updated launcher icon with the new Ariad brand mark.
  • Witty arrival announcements — The Stranger now delivers a destination-specific one-liner when you arrive (e.g., a pun on the business name or a wry observation about the place). Navigation ends silently after the message — no redundant "Navigation ended" spoken.
  • Voice search auto-starts route — saying "Navigate to [place]" from a cold start now immediately engages navigation without requiring a manual "Start" tap.
  • Auto-reroute suppressed at destination — the app no longer reroutes after arrival (fixed the bug where "Rerouting." fired 10 seconds after "home sweet home" while parking).
  • Arrow locked at bottom of screen — the camera forward offset now scales proportionally with zoom level so the user arrow stays pinned near the bottom quarter of the visible map at any speed.
  • Landmark names stripped from HUD — "near Taco Bell" and similar Google-injected landmark text is removed from the turn card and road name display. Voice cues still include landmark context when available.
  • TTS: road type + word spacing fix — fixed "Rowlette Rdnext to Taco Bell" → "Rowlette Road next to Taco Bell" by inserting a space between abbreviated road types and immediately following words.
  • Messages no longer step on each other — step-transition announcements now enqueue instead of interrupting (only truly imminent turns <100m interrupt). Short messages run their course before the next begins.
  • POI search widened to 5-mile corridor — "Find gas on my route" now searches a 5-mile-wide corridor (up from 0.5 miles) across up to 50km of remaining route. Results are still ranked by least detour from the current route.
A0.0.11 February 2026
  • 2-mile and ¼-mile warnings restored — fixed a critical bug where all distance thresholds were pre-marked as fired at each step transition, silencing every reminder. Long steps now correctly announce at 2 miles, ¼ mile, and imminent.
  • Removed "speed up to highway speed" — this phrase was firing at nearly every ramp and interchange. Replaced with a simple "Keep right/left."
  • Cultural Tidbits clarity — the road or landmark name is now repeated at least twice in each tidbit so the driver always knows what fact is being shared.
  • Arrival time — improved contrast — ETA time now rendered in a larger bold font inside a dark pill subframe for legibility on bright map backgrounds.
  • Live remaining distance — the distance shown in the HUD now reflects current remaining miles (updating every second), not the total trip distance.
  • Screen stays on — the display no longer dims or locks while the map screen is active. Auto-dim resumes normally when the app is backgrounded.
  • User arrow at bottom of screen — the navigation camera is now offset further ahead, placing the driver's arrow near the very bottom of the visible map for maximum forward view.
  • State highway abbreviations in TTS — TX-121 → "Texas 121", CA-1 → "California 1", etc. All 50 state codes recognized.
  • Road abbreviation database — FM → "Farm to Market Road", RM → "Ranch to Market Road", SH → "State Highway", CR → "County Road", LP → "Loop", and more.
  • Audio ducking — when Ariad speaks, competing audio apps (music, podcasts) automatically duck to low volume. Full volume returns immediately after the announcement ends.
  • Emergency button — GPS-only location — the E button now uses only verified reverse-geocoded address + GPS coordinates + cardinal direction. Navigation step data is excluded to prevent fabricated intersections.
A0.0.9 February 2026
  • Navigation card fix — card now shows the upcoming turn (not the road you're already on). Small text above shows current road; large text shows next maneuver + distance; smaller text below shows the following maneuver.
  • Cultural Tidbits — at trip start, Claude prepares a historical or cultural fact about a road along your route. It's delivered hands-free the moment you turn onto that road. Toggle on/off in Settings (on by default).
  • Emergency button — red E button (bottom-left) reads your current location aloud in first-responder format using real-time GPS + reverse geocoding.
  • Route polyline redraws on reroute — the map line now updates from your current position after auto-rerouting instead of showing the old path.
  • Camera perspective — user arrow shifted to the lower quarter of the screen during navigation for better forward visibility.
A0.0.8 February 2026
  • Compact navigation card — turn instructions condensed to "Right on Oak St" format to reduce visual clutter at a glance.
  • Arrival time — live estimated clock time ("Arrives 3:42 PM") shown next to ETA, color-coded by traffic level.
  • Next maneuver preview — "Then: Left on University" sub-line added to the navigation card.
A0.0.7 February 2026
  • Smarter rerouting — off-route detection now tracks only remaining route segments; false positives near already-driven roads eliminated.
  • AI intent classification — ambiguous voice queries like "I'm hungry" are now routed through Claude for intent classification before falling back to a general response.
  • POI narration — along-route search results now include road name, estimated minutes from current location, and detour time per result.
  • Map bearing — directional arrow no longer spins when stationary; bearing only updates after moving ≥3 m.
A0.0.6 February 2026
  • Live HUD distance — navigation card now shows real-time distance to the next maneuver, not the step's static total.
  • Traffic color dot — green / yellow / red / grey dot next to ETA indicates current traffic conditions.
  • Junction warnings — lane guidance announcements at 2 miles, ¼ mile, and 1,000 ft before turns and merges.
  • TTS improvements — sub-dollar costs read as "56 cents" not "zero dollars and 56 cents"; addresses trimmed to street only.
  • No reroute offer when no time is saved — traffic alerts only suggest alternate routes when an alternative saves 2+ minutes.
How to Install
01
Download the APK using the button above.
02
Go to Settings → Security and enable Install unknown apps for your browser or Files app.
03
Open the downloaded ariad.apk and tap Install.
04
Grant Location and Microphone permissions when prompted — you're ready to go.
Note: This is a private debug build distributed outside the Play Store. The "unknown apps" warning during install is expected. Ariad is an internal Durratek Solutions product. You can also download the package file directly.