HANGZHOU (Sept 20): Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, which announced it is working on its own autonomous vehicle technology in April, said such concept can be practically implemented if integrated with a "smart city" ecosystem.

Internet of Things (IoT) sensors installed in cities to collect traffic data — such as under Alibaba's "City Brain" programme — can also be utilised by driverless vehicles to increase operational accuracy, said a company official working on the technology.

"Innovators have long worked on developing smart vehicles but unable to achieve the required efficiency," Wang Gang, chief scientist at Alibaba A.I. Labs, which is the artificial intelligence (AI) development arm for Alibaba Group, said at the Cloud Computing Conference 2018 here today.

"A coordinated smart system can help achieve that, and also reduce the cost to manufacture individual vehicles as the more powerful sensors will be installed on the road rather than the vehicles themselves," he added.

The concept of installing smart sensors on the road to assist self-driving vehicles is not new.

However, Alibaba, through its cloud computing unit Alibaba Cloud, said it has made headway in City Brain — essentially its smart city programme — from just traffic surveillance to now include traffic management such as control of traffic light signals in emergency situations.

Essentially, the company sees real use-case scenario in combining AI technology in the brains of machines, with the networking capability under cloud computing.

Alibaba's AI front has made much progress, following the release of its first AI voice assistant TMall Genie in July 2017, with over 5 million units already sold presently.

"Smart vehicles will not be enough — you need smart roads for it to work," said Wang.

It has already installed prototypes for such sensors in select streets in China, he added.

The system, he said, could resolve issues dragging existing driverless cars such as blind spots, or more trivial ones like avoiding puddles when passing by pedestrians.

For cities worldwide, the concept could present yet higher value from those who have yet to install IoT sensors.

Instead of just looking at data collection, cities such as Kuala Lumpur — the first beneficiary of City Brain outside of China — could go another step further by looking into IoT sensors that serve the purpose of improving the efficiency of autonomous vehicles.

The City Brain programme, in collaboration with the Malaysian Digital Economy Corp and the Kuala Lumpur City Hall, began its first phase in January through installation of numerous cameras to observe and subsequently improve traffic flow.