Grab, the largest ride-hailing company in Southeast Asia, launched its Trip Planner service on Tuesday, allowing users in Bangkok to plan trips around the city on public transport such as buses, ferries and the skytrain.
The app's new features will display public transit schedules for the skytrain, subways, ferries and buses in Bangkok.
Once users enter a destination, they can view available public transit routes nearby to get them to their destination, along with departure and arrival times.
The move offers users more choices at different price points and convenience levels, said Tarin Thaniyavarn, country head of Grab Thailand.
"There are 9.8 million registered private cars and motorcycles in Bangkok, which is eight times more than what the road infrastructure can accommodate, and the numbers are increasing every day," he said.
Mr Tarin said these trends underpin the massive congestion problems plaguing the city. Mass transit -- via high-quality public transport -- is the only way to achieve this without adding cars to the roads.
To complement these public transport options, Mr Tarin said Grab has also connected its services such as GrabBike (Win) and GrabCar to take passengers to and from public transit stations or bus stops as part of the trip.
The Trip Planner feature first launched in Jakarta in March and is now available in Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
"The company will observe the response of the market in the next six months before making a decision to expand the Trip Planner feature nationwide, targeted to expand to major provinces in the next six months," Mr Tarin said.
Passakon Prathombutr, senior executive vice-president of the Digital Economy Promotion Agency, said blending smart technologies with the traffic and commuting system, such as the Trip Planner feature, is an example of cooperation between the private sector and government projects to drive towards smart city status.
The government is initiating a smart city development plan that depends on smart mobility, the main core of city development.
One aspect of smart mobility systems that several countries have already put into practice is Mobility as a Service (MaaS), through which commuters can choose their combination of public transport and the private sector's ride services through online platforms.
Laksanawadee Tanamee, director of the Transport and Traffic Information Technology Centre in the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning, said the latest launch represents a tangible effort to move Thailand towards an efficient transport network that is in line with the national strategy of adapting innovations and smart technologies to advance transport efficacy.