Governance of the Risks of Ridesharing in Southeast Asia: An In-Depth Analysis

Smart and sustainable cities rely on innovative technologies to cater to the needs of their constituents. One such need is for sustainable transport. Ridesharing is one of the ways through which sustainable transport can be deployed in smart cities. Ridesharing entered Southeast Asia in 2013, changing the nature of transportation in the region. As with other disruptive innovations, the introduction of ridesharing comes with risks particularly to employment relations, data privacy, road congestion, and distribution of liability. Regulators across various countries have applied different strategies to govern these risks. We present a case study of five Southeast Asian countries, namely Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and examine how government authorities in these countries have governed the risks of ridesharing. Smart cities can effectively provide the sustainable transport needs of their constituents by taking a consistent and unified regulatory approach with new technologies and cooperating with regulators across different jurisdictions. Stakeholders should also be involved in the regulatory process to increase the acceptance of new technologies for transport. Smart cities can also deploy regulatory sandboxes and take a proactive governance approach to encourage the development of these new technologies and at the same time control their undesirable risks.