Last month, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim not only recommended that Malaysians switch from Waze to TuJu as their navigation app, but also completely banned using the former for civil servants. Unsurprisingly, this led to a surge of users that the latter is not used to, causing system disruptions. The company behind it has promised a fix for the situation within two weeks, but in the meantime, it looks like it’s redirecting users to Google Maps for their navigation needs instead.
On both Android and iOS, the TuJu app starts up as it usually does. You can still make use of its actual unique feature, which is the CCTV feed snapshots along each highway. But when you hit the Navigation button, a popup appears stating that the app will launch Google Maps to take you to your destination instead. Hit the Go button, and the internet search giant’s navigation app launches as if you’ve launched it from the app drawer.
The Obvious Workaround
To begin with, the promotion of TuJu as an alternative to Waze was an odd one, when Google Maps has always been available. Even the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM)’s own app uses the internet search giant’s mapping and Point of Interest data as its navigational base. On one hand, perhaps this is a way to put a highlight on a locally made alternative.
But on the other, LLM Chairman Hasni Mohammad stated that TuJu was never intended to compete with the likes of Waze. Instead, NST cites Hasni as saying that it was developed with private app developers to upgrade LLM’s Traffic Management Centre. The app itself is still under development even in its capacity to operate only on toll and federal highways, and “to expect TuJu to cover navigation on all roads in the country, it does not have the capacity”, he said.
