By Nazira Hasanah Nasaruddin
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s call for the public to use local navigation applications, such as TuJu, presents an opportunity to develop homegrown alternatives to international platforms, but improvements in location accuracy, route efficiency and system reliability are crucial to winning users’ trust.
Other alternatives to Waze and Google Maps include Apple Maps, HERE WeGo, Sygic and Petal Maps.
Road safety and sustainable transport activist Shahrim Tamrin said initiatives to promote local applications such as TuJu and PINTAZ should be viewed as a strategic opportunity to strengthen the country’s technological capabilities and reduce reliance on foreign platforms.
Shahrim, a former board member of the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS), said competition in the navigation industry should be based on performance and the value offered to users, rather than a product’s country of origin.
“Local products do not necessarily have to be perfect from day one. However, they must demonstrate clear, consistent and measurable progress,” he told Bernama when contacted.
Meanwhile, Dr Zatul Alwani Shaffiei, a senior lecturer in the Software Engineering Programme at the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering, Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), said the ability of local navigation applications to compete with international platforms depended on the accuracy of location searches, route efficiency, real-time traffic information, system stability and ease of use.
She said their performance could be assessed through comparative tests against existing platforms using identical routes, departure times and traffic conditions, including comparisons between estimated arrival times (ETAs) and actual journey durations.
“The accuracy of real-time traffic information can be assessed based on an application’s ability to detect congestion, accidents or road closures, and how quickly it reflects these conditions,” she said.
Zatul Alwani said key challenges included keeping location databases up to date, obtaining accurate traffic data, and increasing the number of active users to improve service effectiveness.
She added that preliminary tests had found some locations difficult to locate through search functions. Features for finding nearby amenities, including petrol stations, electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, automated teller machines (ATMs), medical centres and restaurants, also needed improvement.
She said developers should prioritise accurate destination searches, GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking, efficient route selection, reliable ETAs, real-time traffic updates and system stability before introducing additional features in stages.
“New applications should be given the opportunity to grow. However, the quality and reliability of the system must not be compromised,” she said.
Several users on the Threads platform shared similar views, saying local navigation applications needed more comprehensive and regularly updated location databases to improve the user experience.
Wan Nur Athirah Wan Fudhail, 35, a civil servant working at a hospital, said accurate navigation instructions and the ease of locating destinations were among the key aspects that needed attention to ensure the applications met users’ needs.
Yesterday, the government decided to prohibit civil servants from using Waze, citing concerns over the security of government information and users’ personal data, which it said could be misused by the Israeli regime.
According to the prime minister, the decision took into account Waze Mobile Ltd’s status as a data controller operating under Israeli law.
He also encouraged the public to use TuJu, developed by the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM), as an alternative.
-- BERNAMA