Chinese mobile transportation platform Didi Chuxing is set to make aggregated, anonymised data from its globally available vehicle network to facilitate transportation AI research.

At the 97th annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB 2018) in Washington, DC, the company announced the expansion of the GAIA Initiative, which was launched in October last year in China.

The GAIA initiative enables the researchers to access anonymised data to tackle traffic challenges and identify possible solutions.

Initially, it will offer dataset comprising information about anonymised start points, end points and routing information of trips made on DiDi Express and DiDi Premier, two of its prominent personal mobility services.

“The GAIA initiative enables the researchers to access anonymised data to tackle traffic challenges and identify possible solutions.”

This large amount of data is expected to assist the scientists worldwide to explore new areas of research and innovation in the mobility sector.

Large amounts of high-quality data forms an important component in developing new products and systems in the field of AI and transportation infrastructure.

DiDi also expects that this dataset will help in increasing public awareness of sustainable transportation planning.

The company stated that all data to be made available will be anonymised and aggregated, as well as encrypted at rest and in transit.

DiDi previously introduced a data visualisation platform for city transportation managers that would help in identifying transportation requirements and in devising new traffic management strategies.