A Dad Wanted a Job for His Autistic Son. He Helped Build a Business Where Dozens Could Thrive.
John D’Eri was worried about his son’s future.
Andrew, who is autistic, had abilities and potential. What he lacked was an employer willing to give him a chance. As Andrew approached adulthood, his father faced a question familiar to many families: What would happen when school ended—and, eventually, when his parents were no longer around?
John decided to help create an answer.
Working with his other son, Thomas, he bought a struggling car wash in South Florida. They developed a business around employing people on the autism spectrum, including Andrew. Rising Tide Car Wash opened in Parkland in 2013.
The choice of business was deliberate. Washing a car involves tasks that can be broken into clear, repeatable steps. There are windows to clean, interiors to vacuum and details to check. The family saw opportunities to match employees’ abilities with work customers needed done well.
But making that work required more than simply putting up a “Help Wanted” sign.
Rising Tide developed specific instructions, checklists and training. It also reconsidered one of employment’s biggest gatekeepers: the job interview.
Instead of relying on a candidate’s ability to impress someone across a desk, the company uses a practical audition. Applicants learn basic tasks and demonstrate what they can do. That gives managers a chance to evaluate the work itself—and gives candidates a chance to show abilities a conventional interview might overlook.
That distinction matters. Someone who struggles to sell themselves in an interview may still be excellent at the job.
And Rising Tide’s approach has opened doors beyond entry-level cleaning work. In a 2024 interview with NACS Magazine, Thomas said autistic employees worked throughout the organization, including as location managers, maintenance technicians and sales associates.
When someone struggles, he explained, the company examines how instructions, training or the work system could improve. The employee gets another route toward succeeding, while the business gets a clearer, more effective way to operate.
What began with one family’s concern has grown considerably.
Rising Tide now lists operating locations in Parkland, Margate and Coral Springs, with a fourth in Pompano Beach marked as coming soon. According to the company, approximately 80% of its staff are autistic, it employs more than 90 autistic workers, and it has helped launch more than 250 careers. Those are company-reported figures, but they show how far the idea has traveled beyond finding Andrew a place to work.
There is something wonderfully practical about the whole enterprise. Customers arrive with dirty cars. Employees have useful work to do. Training turns expectations into steps people can understand, practice and master.
A father worried about whether his son would have a place in the working world helped build a place where many other people could belong, too.
And every day, customers drive away with a clean windshield—and a chance to reconsider who they might have underestimated.
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