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Senseless to spend RM2.9m to reinvent the wheel that's eDrive
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COMMENT | Kuala Lumpur mayor Mohd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz apparently has a lot to learn, especially when he defended the latest smartphone app created by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) known as eDrive.

Unless the report in The Star is misleading, after spending some RM3 million on the app, Mohd Amin claims it costs “only RM2.9 million” to develop eDrive, and not RM565 million, as claimed by Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng.

I wonder how much he understands about apps or what makes a state-of-the-art traffic surveillance system that is user-friendly. Years ago, when DBKL launched its Integrated Transport Information System (Itis), I remember giving it the thumbs-up.

That was before Google launched its Google Map and phone app Waze became popular. Itis was supposed to provide real-time information about the traffic conditions so that one can plan his trip.

However, after trying to use it for not more than ten times, I gave it up. The reason being Itis was “ahead” of its time. Whoever the developer was did not take into consideration the speed of the Internet back then.

This is how ridiculous it was when these developers were supposed to be knowledgeable in the field of Internet communications technology (ICT). They developed something that failed to acknowledge the lack of the infrastructure to support the system.

Even now, I would not spend time looking at the real time traffic conditions in Kuala Lumpur. I may access Itis just to see the extent of the flash floods hitting certain roads. Most of the time, I am also unable to access the CCTV images, and even if I can, it uses up a lot of the data on my Internet package...

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