Waze has announced a new initiative in Kuala Lumpur’s Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) to help drivers in Kuala Lumpur move better and stay safe. Waze is partnering with TRX City Sdn Bhd to install Bluetooth-enabled hardware devices – Waze Beacons – across TRX’s basement roads leading to car parks in the development. This will be inaugural for Southeast Asia – and will aim to leverage Bluetooth connectivity underground to provide seamless navigation to drivers where there’s limited GPS signal reception.
This will help ensure better location services, increased driver safety, and better visibility of real-time traffic events while driving underground in TRX.
“The Waze team and I are pleased to bring the Waze Beacons Program to Malaysia, the first Southeast Asian country to adopt the technology,” said Gil Disatnik, Head of the Waze Beacons Program.
“Seamless navigation can be enjoyed in TRX when its underground roads are open to the public, but this is just the beginning and we hope to expand into more areas nationwide across Malaysia soon. No matter the navigation apps used, Waze Beacons technology is open and free to use, and we ultimately hope to empower road users to outsmart traffic together.”
If you were concerned about TRX City getting your data, don’t be. The Waze Beacons installed and owned by TRX City do not collect data, and works by emitting a signal that can aid navigation apps besides Waze. This makes it easier to navigate underground areas with multiple exits and roundabouts when you have a poor connection. This should hopefully help prevent traffic confusion and congestion.
The good thing is that Waze isn’t the only navigation app affected by this, and other apps like Google Maps or Apple Maps will be able to take advantage of the Waze Beacons. So eventually, maybe it’ll span across Malaysia’s tunnels and underground roads to aid navigation.
Thus far, Waze’s collaboration with TRX has seen devices installed across TRX’s Basements 2 and 3, which have up to 3 and 21 decision points respectively leading to parking, connecting roads, and highways.
Waze has announced a new initiative in Kuala Lumpur’s Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) to help drivers in Kuala Lumpur move better and stay safe. Waze is partnering with TRX City Sdn Bhd to install Bluetooth-enabled hardware devices – Waze Beacons – across TRX’s basement roads leading to car parks in the development. This will be inaugural for Southeast Asia – and will aim to leverage Bluetooth connectivity underground to provide seamless navigation to drivers where there’s limited GPS signal reception.
