Meet Umar Zakir, the Malaysian in An Engineering Team in Finland to Create ‘Driverless’ Buses

Makes you think… “What am I doing with my life?”

With engineers in Europe and the United States getting most of the attention, Malaysians too are making their mark in the world, particularly Umar Zakir Abdul Hamid, who is currently the team lead engineer with Sensible 4 – a Finnish self-driving tech company.

Huzzah!

Featured in the Malay Mail, Umar is currently among the pioneers in the Malaysian autonomous vehicle (AV) field. He is part of no less than 10 AV projects as well as a member of UTM’s Intelligent Drive Team that developed Malaysia’s first driverless vehicle prototype in 2018.

Having worked with the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) and AV since 2014, the company he’s with, Sensible 4, is currently working to produce a shared driverless shuttle bus called Gacha, with Muji Japan.

“From my six years’ of experience in the AV field, I believe I am currently working with one of the best ‘positioning and mapping for AV’ team out there.”

“Every day is a challenge when you are at the forefront of new technology. But to work on something that will change the world and has a high potential to benefit mankind, I think that is worth the challenge.”

With flying cars currently ‘taking a back seat’, a 2019 survey on the landscape of the automotive field in the ASEAN region found that AV could have a big future, judging from the large pool of talent in the field hailing from Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

What amazing talent! Umar definitely made us proud!

Also read: Two M’sian Scientists Win Prestigious Environmental Award In Germany For Their Work On Sustainability