Building the system that moves driving education forward.

Coast.ai builds AI-driven software systems. The result is Coastline Academy: the only national provider of driving lessons, delivered locally.

Looking for driving lessons? Visit Coastline Academy.

Generated editorial image of a white car on a winding road through sunlit California hills
coast.ai The platform and operations.
  • Platform
  • Engineering
  • Operations
  • Data & AI
The driving school. In-person lessons with employed instructors, company vehicles, home pickup, and state-approved courses.
  • Lessons
  • Courses
  • Instructors
  • Vehicles
200K+Students taught
365+Cars on the road
67Locations
27Offices
7States
20+Acquisitions

Start with software, vertically integrate operations.

We started Coastline Academy in 2017 as a pivot from computer vision-based vehicle safety devices. Since then, we have operated with the belief that we can leverage the latest technology, tightly coupled with operational excellence, to deliver an exceptional driving education experience to our students and instructors. Here's how it works.

System overview

Scheduling & home-pickup logistics

  • Student availability
  • Pickup address
  • Service area
  • Travel & traffic time
  • Lesson length

Instructor & vehicle operations

  • Instructor shifts
  • Qualifications
  • Breaks & hours limits
  • Vehicle assignment
  • Maintenance status

Regulatory compliance & product eligibility

  • State course rules
  • Permit & age checks
  • Hour requirements
  • Certificate issuance
  • What can be sold where

AI at the heart of logistics

  • Can an instructor physically get there, with traffic, and still take their break?
  • Is there a vehicle ready at that time?
  • Is this lesson type legal for this student in this state today, and will it count toward their certificate?
  • Would a lesson at this time make sense for the instructor and the business?
  • Does the system remain in compliance?

A lesson that satisfies all constraints

Tue 15:30–17:30 · home pickup Instructor assigned · car assigned · counts toward state hours, compliance validated

All aboard the scale rocketship.

Expansion New markets open on the same system

Expansion through hiring or acquisition means new locations and new instructors, which we onboard to our platform for immediate scale contribution.

Consistency Regulation managed across 7 states

The platform codifies regulatory compliance needs across every state and county, allowing our people to focus on delivering the best experience to our customers and instructors.

Utilization More teaching hours per instructor and car

Travel time, geography, and traffic are inputs to the AI scheduling system. Days pack tighter without breaking rules or burning out instructors.

Speed Improvements reach the field in days

Ideas come from the people running lessons, go to a small engineering team, and deploy to every location. Idea to deploy in hours.

We use AI to accelerate quality and optimize attention.

Since our inception in 2017, we have applied AI throughout the organization where it accelerates our ability to deliver exceptional quality.

Engineering

A small engineering team ships like a large one

We use AI to explore, implement, and review changes. We built our own software factory to continuously accelerate without declining quality. Broad test coverage, observable production systems, and focused alerts mean speed does not come at the expense of confidence.

Merges per quarterQ1 2024 – Q3 2026

Source: Coast.ai engineering merge data (actuals, no team size expansion).

Operations

AI delivers insights and exceptions to managers

A manager's time is best spent with their people - supporting and making sure they have the right equipment, bookings and other needs addressed quickly. Meanwhile, AI works 24/7 behind the scenes finding opportunities and exceptions so managers' attention focuses on what really matters.

Scope
Tuesday · 14 instructors · 38 lessonsReviewed overnight against travel, break, and eligibility rules
Flag
Only 15 minutes for lunch in a 90-minute gapThe 14:00–15:30 gap now includes 75 minutes of travel after a pickup address changed, leaving 15 minutes for a 30-minute lunch.
Context
No false opening createdThe gap is accounted for; the schedule should not be offered to new students.
Actions
Shift lesson 15 minReassign pickupMove to other instructor

Illustrative finding.

The loop

A perpetual improvement machine

Our founders taught lessons, answered phones, and managed instructors before writing the system. That habit persists: field problems are captured as data, AI helps us find the pattern, and the fix ships to every location. Then the data tells us whether it worked.

FieldInstructors report late arrivals in one regionSupport tickets and schedule notes capture it.
AnalysisAI finds the patternAfternoon travel estimates run short on a set of corridors.
BuildEngineering ships a changeTime-of-day traffic prediction feeds the scheduler.
MeasureData confirms or rejects itLate arrivals and squeezed breaks are tracked after release.

Illustrative sequence.

Founder Mode

Operators who build, engineers who operate.

Nigel TunnacliffeCo-founder & CEO

Oxford MBA. SV Executive. Sailor. Race car driver.

Matt HarveyCo-founder & CTO

Multiple time founder. AI/ML developer. Hockey player.

Five members of the Coastline team smiling together

We're building the next chapter of driving education.

Looking for driving lessons? Lessons, courses, and instructors are booked with Coastline Academy, not here. Visit Coastline →