In Shanghai commuters can now beat jams and design their own bus routes with help from Alibaba’s AI tech

Smart ‘Bus Brain’ calculates number of buses needed and optimal route for the No. 9 service between Songjiang district and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park

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City Brain, an AI-powered traffic-management system by Alibaba Cloud, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China April 10, 2018. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:00am, 19 Sep 2019Updated: 9:00am, 19 Sep 2019

In an effort to beat traffic congestion and commuter fatigue, Shanghai has deployed its first bus routes guided by Alibaba’s artificial intelligence technology.

Commuters can buy a bus ticket via Alipay, the mobile payments service run by Ant Financial, and then AI algorithms produced by Alibaba crunch the data and generate the number of buses needed and optimal route for the No. 9 service between Songjiang district and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park.

Commuters first enter their preferred start and end location into the Alipay app. It then suggests the closest bus stops or alternatively, it is possible to generate a customised route. Passengers can also lock in their seats when they book a ticket in advance. The AI “Bus Brain” generates routes based on shopping history, maps and traffic information data.

Ant Financial is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, parent company of the South China Morning Post.

As China’s biggest cities draw in more urban dwellers, traffic congestion has become a national problem – both in terms of working hours lost on the roads and impact on the environment. Shanghai was ranked as the eighth worst city in China for traffic jams in 2018, according to a ranking compiled by amap.com and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, with a resident’s average commuting time calculated at 85.27 minutes per day.

“‘The Bus Brain automatically design routes, stations, and the number of buses to put on the road,” said Cui Ting Ting, chief operating officer at Deer EV which operates the No 9 service. “Whereas a ride-hailing taxi serves around two to three passengers, the customised bus is a ride-sharing service for 40 people.”