According to Dr Horizon Gitano Briggs of Focus Applied Technologies Sdn Bhd, Malaysia is already at the forefront of technology in future mobility.
"Connected Mobility is all about information and it can be as simple as knowing exactly when the bus will arrive and what time you will reach your destination," Briggs said.
"Simple as it may sound, it involves connectivity of information being relayed between various parties before it is deemed useful for the end users, which will be the general public," he added.
"Even if you are driving your own vehicle, connectivity in mobility helps in ensuring your time is not wasted. Which route is the least congested, where should you park your vehicle and what time will you get to your destination."
Briggs reminded that the examples given above are basically the short term gains for the masses.
"Wasting time waiting for the road to clear and losing hours trying to locate a vacant are factors we can minimise."
"The main objective will have to be autonomous vehicles where connected mobility will allow the vehicles to serve us better. The ultimate goal is that when vehicles communicate with each other and infrastructure, we can greatly reduce road accidents and fatalities," he stressed.
"Yes, there will still be fatalities, but compared with the figures of death caused by traditional human-driven vehicles, the number is a lot lower," he commented when asked to comment about the Uber incident where an autonomous Volvo crashed and killed a pedestrian in US last month.
Back in Malaysia, Briggs believe that Malaysia is already at the forefront of connected mobility.
"Malaysians are more progressive towards new technology compared with their neighbouring countries. Malaysians easily accepted Waze, Uber and Grab simply because the application allows them real-time traffic and their estimated time of arrival," Briggs pointed out.
"In the US, people are more resistant towards new technologies," said the Arizona born Professor.
Briggs agrees that while the industry is prepared because it has the technology, a country will have to be prepared to change its rules and regulations in order for the changes to happen.
"A government needs to be proactive because the new technology in mobility will require various changes in policies. Malaysia has actually proven to be the leader in this region."
"Malaysia was the first country in ASEAN to come out with its taxes and policies for registering Electric Vehicles (EVs) for public consumption. Malaysia was quick to change the policies and paved way for the others in the region to follow."
"Philippines for example has adopted our EV policies and turned them into theirs. They have studied and found our policies are comprehensive and implemented them for their own country," Briggs pointed out.
Briggs explained that at first, the Malaysian government was a bit passive with the new standards for EV but after studying the global market, the government realised it must be prepared with market forces and the policies must be able to follow the progress in technology.
The Malaysia Autoshow 2018, organised by Malaysia Automotive Institute (MAI), and agency under MITI has created an extensive showcase of local and foreign technologies that are related to connected mobility.
Infact, the government has started working on the National Automotive Policy (NAP) 2018 which has a strong emphasis on new generation vehicles, mobility, Industrial Revolution 4.0 and Artificial Intelligence.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak recently has launched the Mobility Digital Optimisation Services or MDOTS by MAI during the opening of Malaysia Autoshow 2018 at MAEPS, Serdang last week.
MDOTS is an initiative that will enable collection, analysis and interpretation of information into smart data and later will be used in decision making and development of future policies.
