Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) chairperson Hasni Mohammad has clarified that the TuJu navigation application was developed primarily to improve services along tolled highways, rather than to compete directly with Waze.

His explanation comes amid questions over the government’s promotion of TuJu as an alternative to Waze, following Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s urge for Malaysians to switch to the locally developed application over national security concerns.

“Our collaboration is simply intended to improve our Traffic Management Centre,” Hasni (above) told Malaysiakini during an interview in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

He explained that TuJu was conceived as an additional service for tolled highway users, providing traffic updates, information on rest areas, locations of enforcement cameras and emergency assistance contacts.