- Alibaba-backed navigation app plans phased global launch after China-wide deployment
- Technology relies on AI prediction models instead of direct traffic-light system access
Amap (高德地图), Alibaba’s navigation and mapping app, said on May 20 it will begin rolling out its AI-powered traffic-light countdown feature to overseas markets, exporting a navigation capability that has long been considered one of the most technically difficult functions in the global mapping industry.
The Alibaba-backed mapping platform launched the feature in China in May 2022. It provides real-time traffic-light countdowns during navigation, driving, cycling and walking modes, while also estimating how many red-light cycles drivers may need to wait through at congested intersections.
The company said the service has already achieved full coverage across the Chinese mainland as well as Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, spanning nearly 500,000 traffic-light intersections.
Overseas expansion will proceed gradually across additional countries and regions.
Traffic-light countdown services have remained elusive for many global navigation platforms because traffic-signal systems differ widely across jurisdictions and often provide limited or no direct data access.
Major overseas tech giants including Apple and Google have yet to deploy large-scale, highly accurate countdown systems globally.
Rather than relying on direct integration with traffic-light hardware, Amap said its system uses AI models to analyze historical traffic patterns, real-time vehicle flows, motorists’ driving trajectories, stopping behavior and signal timing to simulate countdowns.
The underlying system is based on what the company calls a Vision Spatio-Temporal Model, or VSTM, which incorporates visual temporal perception into spatial intelligence computing to better predict complex traffic conditions at intersections.
The overseas rollout could nonetheless face regulatory scrutiny in some regions where traffic-signal data is considered sensitive infrastructure information.
Scrutiny over ‘security concerns’
In Taiwan, which Beijing claims as a renegade province, local authorities have raised concerns after the countdown feature became available there in April.
Taiwan official Liu Shyh-fang said authorities would conduct a broader risk assessment and could potentially restrict or ban the feature if security concerns emerge.
Taiwan’s digital affairs authorities confirmed Amap had not connected directly to local traffic systems, but questioned whether the platform could still gain access to sensitive infrastructure-related data through its AI-based traffic analysis methods.
