Alibaba Cloud's City Brain solution improves urban management in Hangzhou

HANGZHOU - Alibaba Group's cloud computing arm, Alibaba Cloud, on Wednesday launched the 2.0 version of the ET City Brain system, which is able to cover all 420 square km of urban areas in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.

Alibaba Cloud's City Brain solution has been piloted at the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, since 2017, using artificial intelligence (AI) technology in urban management.

At Alibaba's annual computing conference on Wednesday, Jin Zhi, director of Hangzhou municipal bureau of public security, said the system has been used to optimize the management of 1,300 traffic lights at intersections and to connect 4,500 traffic monitoring video cameras.

With the updated 2.0 version of the system, Hangzhou's urban transport management can be maintained by AI and cloud computing technology to speed up traffic efficiency, Jin said.

"The ET Brain can automatically detect traffic congestion spots and accidents and conduct comprehensive management of the traffic system," said Jin.

The system can provide green lights for emergency vehicles like ambulances, making their arrival time 48.9 percent faster than before.

Alibaba Group vice-president and Alibaba Cloud's president Hu Xiaoming said that the next step is to introduce the ET City Brain system to other public service areas such as fire control to improve efficiency.

In January, Malaysia invited Alibaba Cloud to introduce the smart city cloud solution in the country's capital city Kuala Lumpur, copying the pilot program in Hangzhou. This has made Malaysia the first country outside China to adopt Alibaba Cloud's City Brain solution.