On July 1, 2021, KERB was announced as a winner of the Toyota Mobility Foundation’s City Architecture for Tomorrow Challenge (CATCH), along with US privacy-first computer vision solution, Numina. Each company won US$250,000 to help bring their mobility solutions to life in Kuala Lumpur.
Part 1 - Increase supply around Kuala Lumpur’s transport hubs.
Over a quarter of the world’s eight billion people are negatively impacted by urban congestion almost every day of the year. One of the key causes of congestion and impaired mobility in Kuala Lumpur is the huge imbalance between the limited supply of traditional parking infrastructure and the high demand for it. There are over one million vehicles in Kuala Lumpur. According to KERB’s analysis, there are only approximately 500,000 traditional parking spaces. KERB believes there are another 690,000 parking spaces in Kuala Lumpur, which a marketplace like KERB can unlock.
Every single vehicle driving the streets of Kuala Lumpur during the rush hours has freed up a parking space in another part of the city. Hundreds of thousands of parking spaces sit empty for much of the week – behind condos, beneath hotels, attached to sports venues and places of worship, and in schools and universities.
Providing more places to park is not only good for drivers but it improves urban mobility in Kuala Lumpur. When drivers know where they are parking, congestion reduces in cities. Additionally, having more parking spaces available around transport hubs, that are also bookable in advance, encourages commuters to use Park ‘N Ride facilities and use public transport.
Part 2 - Track Kuala Lumpur parker data in real-time.
KERB’s prototype gate-opening hardware device can be quickly installed into any existing car park gates, providing one-touch booking and payment, “hands-free” car park access, and real-time data on WHO is parking WHERE, and WHEN.
This device, combined with the KERB app, is incredibly powerful for car park owners. With KERB car park owners and operators can:
- Reduce OPEX and CAPEX costs.
- Increase Profit/EBITDA due to automation. With KERB there are zero R&D costs or next-generation parking technology.
- Improve parker satisfaction (book-in-advance, contactless payments, overall convenience, etc.).
- Leverage parker data to personalise the parker experience.
- Automate manual car park functions such as enforcement, ID-checking, access, etc.
Part 3 - Optimise Kuala Lumpur commuters’ journey paths.
KERB can combine city data with KERB’s own data and parking inventory to suggest optimal parking locations for commuters, thereby accelerating the flow of commuters through the city.
KERB is committed to building out its vision for parking and mobility across the world, with Asia-Pacific generally – and Malaysia specifically – emerging as markets with huge potential for the company.
Since launching in Kuala Lumpur in December 2019, KERB is actively building partnerships with key property groups. Sunway Berhad was the first group to adopt KERB. These groups will increase the supply of bookable parking spaces on KERB, getting vehicles off the road more quickly, and thereby improving mobility around Kuala Lumpur.
Parking is just the first of several mobility-related services to which KERB will eventually apply its technology. The KERB brand was initially conceived with the view that it had the potential to become far more than just a parking app. At least half of the world’s 8 billion people come into contact with ‘the kerb’ every single day. EV-charging, parcel pick-ups, breakdown services and car-sharing are just four examples of mobility-related services we intend to add to the KERB platform.
If you are interested in learning more about KERB’s efforts in Kuala Lumpur or how we can apply them to your city, please email us at justask@kerb.works or check us out on the App Store, Google Play, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn.
