Most Southeast Asian capitals and major cities are notorious for its traffic congestion. In separate developments, Alibaba and Google have taken steps to be more involved in the transportation industries in Malaysia and Indonesia respectively.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group will leverage artificial intelligence to set up a traffic control system for Kuala Lumpur, its first such initiative outside China.
It plans to predict live traffic and make recommendations to improve traffic efficiency in the Malaysian capital by analysing data gathered from 500 cameras, traffic bureaus, public transportation systems, and mapping apps.
Alibaba will be teaming up with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation and the Kuala Lumpur city council to implement the system by May.
Meanwhile, Google has invested in GO-JEK, a startup in Indonesia. Highly popular in the archipelago, GO-JEK is the equivalent of Uber and Grab and specialises in both motorcycle and car taxi services, plus food and grocery delivery.
Google pointed out that its goal is to prompt and inspire local efforts in the development of technology-based solutions and software, to keep progress in fields of technology moving forward.
Entelechy Asia 