A Malaysian developer by the name of Alan Chung, frustrated by the disruptions presented by the locally developed navigation app, TuJu, decided to take matters into their own hands and developed their own navigation app. The app is called Lapan.
A Numbers Dig
The name of the navigation app is clearly a dig at the name of the currently infamous app. That aside, the app is browser-based, and supports 2D and 3D Map Views, and is free for use. No registration required.
The app also provides typical details a navigation app would, including Suggested and Alternative Routes, with the fomer supporting live traffic updates from TomTom. Other details that are included in the app is a toll calculator, which appears to require manual input, rather than it calculating it automatically.
Feels Rushed and Likely Vibecoded
It’s easy to see understand why Chung developed the app and the element of frustration that played a role in their action. In Chung’s case, Lapan feels more a knee-jerk reaction, a stick-it-to-the-man sort of response, if you will. At a glance, it’s clear (to this writer, at least) that this was vibecoded with AI – the font of the text itself is one the tell-tale signs, as it’s the layout. We know this because this is more or less the default layout that we have seen AI Agents and language models use.
I want to be clear here: there is absolutely nothing wrong with using AI and, more so, vibecoding. There is a thriving community, and many developers in that community develop their own apps that serve themselves and, to some degree, help others willing to give it a go. But, given the convenience of AI and how things stand – also, I don’t say this as an insult and more of an observational statement – almost any Tom, Dick, and Harry can vibecode and create a near-fully functioning app. Almost.
That out of the way, there are other flaws with Lapan. In this case, keying in specific destinations, be it in the starting point or final destination, and not those from the provided search results, results in the app being unable to chart a course or route. On another note, some locations and destinations are still missing, but again, it’s clear that the app isn’t whole or complete in its development.
Chung says that they tested it out themselves before releasing it, which means that it wasn’t fully tested with the company. There’s also no dedicated Lapan app to speak of at the current moment, and there is no indication that Chung plans on releasing a dedicated app on either Android or iOS. Bottom line here, though, is that there is certainly room for improvement.
TuJu saw a surge in downloads after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim encouraged folks to switch to the app from Waze, citing national security concerns, due to the app being Israeli-made. His statement of a possible nationwide ban on Waze has, unsurprisingly, been met with some resistance, with the ban having gone into immediate effect for civil servants.
