Motion Digest Network

At the Kuala Lumpur International Automotive Symposium (KLIAS) held on Nov 9-12, one booth catches the eye: CRETA, which stands for Conscious Reka Transport Apparatus.

REKA @ KL International Auto Show 2017 with some of the visitors who experienced the ride in a self-driving Proton Perdana with REKA’s CEO, Haziq Faris

It is Malaysia’s first locally made self-driving car developed by home-grown Internet of Things (IoT) start-up Reka Initiative. The self-driving car has even been tested by Malaysia’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation — Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Madius Tangau — who took a ride in the car last October.

Malaysian Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Madius Tangau took a ride in REKA Autonomous car with the CEO of REKA, Haziq Faris and CEO of Nano Malaysia, Dr Rezal Ahmad Khairi during the National Innovation and Creative Expo last October

CRETA is powered by the Reka Innovation Gear (RIG), a proprietary IoT development board which the company had been developing since January 2016.

According to Reka, the heart of RIG is the Ubiquitous Autonomous Car Gear, which is designed to convert an ordinary car into a self-driving vehicle that can communicate with other autonomous cars.

“The Gear is built from ground zero using Python programming, an open source programming language and powers the autonomous driving AI platform,” CEO Haziq tells Motion Digest.

CRETA debuted in November 2016 and has successfully driven from Melaka to Kuala Lumpur without a human driver, says the company.

Despite the successful trip, CRETA is still in development phase and is only 20% ready, according to CEO Muhammad Haziq Faris Hasnol’s estimate.

“We are currently developing our Autonomous Driving Kit and expect to be ready and available in 2020 for Level 2 and 3 (in terms of autonomous driving levels),” Haziq tells Motion Digest.

#StartIoT launching in TM Convention Centre last October. #StartIoT is REKA’s initiative in collaboration with TM RE: to initiate IoT education and technology in Malaysia.

He also says developers could expect an open source version of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform in future.

“AI will be a crucial part in improving our lives for the better in the future. Truth be told we still have a long way to go for Autonomous Driving in Kuala Lumpur in terms of technology, policy and public acceptance but I believe that people are slowly becoming aware of its importance and impact,” he adds.

Meet the peREKA @REKA, a cool zen-like & cultured work spaces to fuel the creativity and passion among all peREKAs

REKAthon event in collaboration with TM RE: will be held at TM Convention Center on the 16 & 17 December 2017