E-hailing drivers: The end is near

 Robotaxis are coming. For the thousands of Malaysians working in the gig economy, the clock is already ticking.

Imagine this. You wake up tomorrow and open the Grab app. But instead of a driver’s name and a photo, you see a car with no one in it pulling up to your doorstep.

No driver cancelling on you three times in a row. No wrong turns. No surge pricing. Just a clean, quiet ride to work for half of what you pay today.

Now imagine you are the driver who just lost that fare. And the next one. And every one after that.

This is not a thought experiment. On April 1, 2026, Grab and Chinese autonomous vehicle company WeRide launched a driverless shuttle service in Singapore’s Punggol neighbourhood.

Eleven autonomous vehicles. Two fixed routes. No human behind the wheel. The service, branded Ai.R, is still free and limited in scope, but the signal it sends is unmistakable: the driverless taxi is coming soon to our shores.

It is also a warning to the thousands of people who depend on driving taxis or ride hailing vehicles for a living to be prepared for yet another disruption.

Globally, the autonomous ride-hailing revolution is accelerating at a breathtaking pace. Waymo operates robotaxis in ten American cities. Baidu’s Apollo Go has completed 20 million fully driverless rides across China.

Tesla launched its robotaxi service in Austin last June and is rolling out across Phoenix, Dallas, Las Vegas and Miami, with its purpose-built Cybercab entering mass production this month at under RM120,000 per vehicle. For context, each Waymo robotaxi costs roughly RM400,000.

Tesla’s vertical integration—designing its own chips, software, batteries and vehicles end-to-end—gives it a cost structure that no competitor can match. The Cybercab has 50% fewer parts than a Model 3, courtesy of gigacasting technology that replaces hundreds of stamped steel components with single massive aluminium castings. Elon Musk has claimed that the Cybercab could eventually operate at roughly RM0.50 per kilometre.

To put that in terms Malaysians can relate to, a Grab ride from KLCC to Bangsar currently costs around RM10 to RM14. At Tesla’s projected operating costs, that same trip in a robotaxi could cost as little as RM4 to RM6. Half price, no driver to pay, available around the clock.

The economics are devastating for human drivers. And they will only get worse.

But the question that should haunt every e-hailing driver in this country is not when robotaxis will arrive. It is what they plan to do when they do.

Consider the scale of what is at stake. Malaysia’s gig economy encompasses approximately 1.64 million workers, spanning e-hailing, food delivery, courier services and freelance digital work.

Over 160,000 of these are registered e-hailing drivers, the overwhelming majority with Grab. For many, this is not a side hustle. It is their primary source of income, averaging around RM4,100 a month, modestly above the national median salary of RM2,864.

These are not wealthy people. Many are former taxi drivers who already survived one wave of disruption.

When ride-hailing decimated the taxi industry, Malaysia went from 120,000 operational taxis to just 40,000, with 30,000 abandoned outright. Tens of thousands adapted by switching to Grab, learning new apps, buying new cars, taking on new loans.

Now they face the prospect of doing it all over again. Except this time, there may not be a new platform to absorb them.

How long do they have? Full autonomy on Malaysian roads is still some years away. Our regulatory framework has barely begun to contemplate it. The chaotic nature of Southeast Asian traffic presents challenges that even the best AI has not fully cracked.

Baidu’s recent system failure in Wuhan, where over 100 robotaxis were stranded mid-traffic, underscores how far the technology still has to go.

My best estimate is three to five years before the first commercial robotaxi corridors appear in Kuala Lumpur or Putrajaya; a decade before autonomous rides take a meaningful share of the market.

That timeline sounds comfortable. It is not. A decade passes quickly, and the taxi drivers who dismissed ride-hailing as a distant threat in 2012 were out of work by 2020.

Will these jobs fully disappear? Not overnight.

There will be a transitional period where human drivers and autonomous vehicles coexist, much as traditional taxis still limp along alongside Grab today. New roles will emerge: remote vehicle operators who monitor robotaxis from command centres; fleet technicians who maintain, calibrate and repair autonomous vehicles.

But these require technical skills that most current drivers do not have.

The Gig Workers Act 2025, which came into force on March 31, 2026, mandates social security contributions and written contracts for gig workers. It is progressive legislation, but it is designed for the gig economy as it exists today, not the one that is coming.

The i-Saraan Plus scheme, which matches retirement contributions up to RM600 a year, is welcome but laughably inadequate in the face of wholesale job displacement.

The hard truth is this: drivers cannot wait for the government to save them. They need to start preparing now. That means treating the next few years not as business as usual, but as a runway to retrain and reskill. The drivers who survive this transition will be the ones who saw it coming and refused to stand still.

The gig economy gave millions of Malaysians a lifeline when formal employment fell short. That lifeline has an expiry date. The app will stop ringing eventually.

The only question is whether you will have prepared for the silence. - FMT

The writer can be contacted at kathirgugan@protonmail.com.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

Battle to avoid the drop still wide open

 No one is safe as relegation dogfight looks set to go to the wire.

Who’s for the drop?

For once, the title race is not the story. Nor is the Manchester United v Liverpool clash beyond their own fan bases.

The current spotlight in the EPL is on the battle to avoid the drop. With four games to play, there are four contenders and only six points covering them.

Why the football world’s attention is focused on the basement is, of course, because of a Big Six club being embroiled in the dogfight.

And it happens to be the one with the fewest points.

Nothing against Spurs, (apart from Arsenal overdosing on what the Germans call schadenfreude), but most fans want them to go down.

We love to see a giant fall as much as we love an underdog. And the idea of a Big Six club being relegated tells us that anything is still possible.

It restores our faith that money, although a very useful thing to have, cannot guarantee safety, let alone success.

If you cock it up badly enough – and Spurs have – no matter how many zillions you throw at it, you can still end up playing Lincoln City, Stevenage or Wrexham next season.

Forty-six games in the league. No European glamour ties. A half-empty “best stadium in Europe” echoing to the cries of visiting fans as home supporters pick and choose.

Matchday income and broadcasting rights melt down to a fraction of what you’ve come to expect.

It all adds up to a chilling blast of harsh reality.

As it stands, Spurs have just 34 points, two behind West Ham on 36, with Forest (39) and Leeds (40) occupying the higher ground in this battlefield.

The 40-point marker was once considered safe, but as nervous Leeds fans will tell you, points in the bag are handy, but in this situation, possession of them is not nine-tenths of the law.

It’s the remaining fixtures that will decide who remains on the EPL gravy train and who falls into the abyss.

Indeed, despite their numerical advantage, there is no counting of chickens among Leeds or Forest fans.

Both have spent years in the wilderness – Forest 23 and Leeds 15 – including spells in the third tier – before clambering back to where they think they belong.

The psychological scars have not completely healed and a return to the huddled masses is a fate too ghastly to contemplate.

The narrative suggests that either Spurs or West Ham is more likely to go down, yet Spurs arguably have the easiest programme of the four.

But perhaps too many people are looking at data and listening to the bookies.

Opta’s supercomputer has Leeds and Forest as rank outsiders for the drop, giving Forest a 1.26% chance of finishing 18th , while Leeds are at 1.2%.

In stark contrast, it gives Spurs a 60.15% chance of going down and West Ham a 37.35% chance.

Opta thinks that Leeds has the easiest run-in, with three of its four games categorised as “easier”.

However, closer analysis reveals that its game away at West Ham on the final day of the season is one of them.

Making a mockery of the prediction is that Opta considers the same game “easier” for the Hammers too!

Leeds fans are praying that it doesn’t come down to the wire, as home advantage would make West Ham favourites.

The Yorkshiremen’s visit to Spurs is also in the “softer” category for both clubs.

Without going into any more depth, it’s safe to say that form, fitness, tactics and managerial nous on the pitch will be the decisive factors. And not, whatever is fed into a computer.

All four won last weekend, which means there’s some positivity in the air.

Forest were on an unbeaten run of eight games before the overnight Europa semi-final with Aston Villa.

Inspired by Morgan Gibbs-White, they might be considered the form team, especially after scoring nine times in their last two matches.

But the distraction of this tournament may count against them. They go to Chelsea on Monday and then play the return leg against Villa on Thursday.

With their brilliant Brazilian centre-back Murillo a doubt for all three games, and his deputy, Jair Cunha, for at least one, they may need to keep hitting the target.

Spurs, who have been the hardest hit EPL club of all, had more injury woes with Xavi Simons out for the season, and Dominik Solanke likely to miss most of it.

Ominously, perhaps, West Ham are the only one of the four to boast a clean bill of health.

The so-called six-pointers between the clubs could tilt the balance. Leeds has to go to Spurs as well as Palace.

With so much riding on them, such games could turn the formbook upside down.

Forest could pull off a unique double which would be entirely in keeping with their rollercoaster season: going down and qualifying for the Champions League!

It’s unlikely as Villa are favourites to win the Europa League, but Forest has work to do to avoid the drop.
All in all, West Ham and Spurs could close the gap on the other two. But the decider could well be the Hammers at home to Leeds on the fateful final day.

By then Leeds will have visited Spurs. Forest, meanwhile, face their bogey team, Bournemouth on the final day.

It’s why you can’t take your eyes off the relegation battle. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

An hour inside, a struggle outside: The hidden gaps in hospital access

 There comes a point in life when the assumptions we once held begin to unravel, quietly, but decisively.

For decades, many working Malaysians relied on private healthcare, supported by insurance policies that promised security and choice.

Yet, as the years advance, that promise often weakens. Premiums escalate, exclusions tighten, and access becomes increasingly uncertain.

The uncomfortable truth emerges: the advantage gradually shifts from the insured to the insurer, particularly in our later years.

It was within this context that I recently visited Universiti Malaya Medical Centre, a leading university hospital located in Petaling Jaya. It was an experience that was both reassuring and revealing.

My appointment was scheduled for 9am, and I arrived early at 8.15am, only to find the car park full. It resembled a peak-hour commercial complex rather than a healthcare facility. I attempted to park in two separate blocks, navigating entry points that demanded precision and patience.

The entry and exit design left little margin for error, requiring drivers to manoeuvre with near-perfect control.

One cannot help but ask: has anyone from the maintenance or facilities team experienced this firsthand?

Often, policy does not fail in intent — but in execution. A minor redesign, even removing a few feet of barricade space at critical entry points, could significantly improve traffic flow and safety.

After repeated attempts, I made a pragmatic, if risky, decision. I parked near a restaurant across the road from the hospital, fully aware that I could be issued a summons.

Fortunately, I was spared. But for many elderly patients, this would not even be an option.

Despite the delay, I reached the clinic only 10 minutes late. The consultation was efficient. Medication was prescribed, and I was given an appointment for a blood test two months later, followed by a review.

I was then directed to the outpatient pharmacy, located some distance away. The walk, close to 500m, required guidance from several helpful individuals. For a relatively mobile person, this was manageable. For an elderly patient, it could be a significant barrier.

Yet, what awaited me at the pharmacy was impressive. The system had already processed my prescription, and my medication was being prepared before I even arrived at the counter.

This level of integration and efficiency rivals, and in some respects exceeds, systems in more developed healthcare settings.

The cost was equally striking, approximately 10% of what one would pay at private facilities. For retirees or those without stable income, this is not merely affordability; it is accessibility in its truest sense.

From arrival to departure, I completed my visit in just about an hour, a testament to the efficiency of the medical professionals and systems in place.

But, that is only half the story.

As I stood in the pharmacy, I observed many patients in their 60s, 70s, and beyond. Some were in wheelchairs, others supported by family members. These were individuals who had contributed to society for decades, now navigating a system that, while clinically efficient, is not always physically accommodating.

This raises a critical policy question: are our public and university hospitals designed for the demographic they now serve?

Malaysia is an ageing nation. By 2030, a significant portion of our population will be over 60.

Healthcare demand will not only increase, it will evolve. Accessibility, mobility, and patient experience will become central to effective care delivery.

Yet, many of our healthcare facilities still operate on infrastructure models designed for a younger, more mobile population.

The gap is clear.

Clinical efficiency must be matched by environmental and infrastructural readiness. Parking is not a convenience; it is an access point to care.

Walkways are not merely connectors; they determine whether a patient can reach treatment independently. Signage, seating, rest areas, and assisted mobility features are not luxuries — they are fundamental to dignity.

Policy reform in healthcare must therefore move beyond cost and clinical outcomes. It must incorporate patient journey mapping as a core performance indicator.

Hospitals should be assessed not only on treatment success rates, but also on accessibility standards, patient flow efficiency, and infrastructure usability, particularly for elderly and disabled populations.

Some practical interventions could be considered:

• Retrofitting existing facilities with senior-friendly infrastructure, including walkalators, ramps, and wider parking entry points.
• Redesigning parking systems with dedicated zones for elderly and disabled patients, located closer to clinical areas.
• Enhancing wayfinding systems to reduce confusion and physical strain.
• Establishing minimum maintenance and cleanliness benchmarks, particularly for high-traffic facilities.
• Integrating patient experience audits into hospital performance evaluations.

These are not capital-intensive overhauls, but targeted, high-impact improvements.

The university hospital in Petaling Jaya is already delivering where it matters most, affordable care, capable doctors, and efficient systems. But the next phase of healthcare excellence lies in aligning infrastructure with demographic reality.

Because in the years ahead, the question will not only be whether patients can be treated quickly, but whether they can access that treatment with dignity, ease, and independence.

Efficiency brought me in and out of the hospital within an hour. But the experience leading up to it tells a larger story, one that policymakers, administrators, and planners can no longer afford to overlook.

In an ageing nation, healthcare must not only heal. It must also understand. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

EUROPE IS IN DEEP SH_T

 Here is Survival Lilly - the Austrian survival girl who now says plenty about the troubles in the European economies - from the ground. Lilly reports from the ground level.

All the problems in Europe are of their own total stupidity. I never suspected at any point in my life that the white people, the Europeans could be this totally stupid. The war in Ukraine is just their stupidity. And instead of bringing it to an end they are prepared to prolong it - now into the FIFTH year. Russia has taken so much territory from Ukraine.

Europe will be saved if the AfD (Alternative Fur Deutschland) Party comes to power in Germany. That can only happen in 2029 unless Reichskanzellor Merz steps down or is kicked out for some reason.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.