Hong Kong is set to adopt artificial intelligence — by the end of this year at the earliest — to optimize traffic lights and process applications for local vehicle licenses and cross-boundary driving licenses in a bid to improve efficiency and cut waiting time.
By leveraging AI, the efficiency of some processes can be strengthened by up to 90 percent, cutting applicants’ waiting time from hours to days.
Hong Kong's Transport Department (TD) said that the Easy Licence Application Approval project is set to be rolled out by the end of 2026. Leveraging advanced large language model AI technology, the system will be able to automatically recognize, cross-check, and verify application documents for online vehicle license renewals, as well as for applications under the Northbound Travel for Hong Kong Vehicles and Southbound Travel for Guangdong Vehicles schemes.
These reciprocal cross-boundary transport arrangements allow eligible private cars from Hong Kong and Guangdong to travel across the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.
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The department aims to significantly increase the proportion of automatically approved online vehicle license renewal applications to over 90 percent, while reducing the approval time from a maximum of 10 working days to 24 hours. The ratio of cross-boundary driving permit applications processed through AI auto-approval is expected to exceed 50 percent, cutting the current manual processing time by about 20 percent.
Starting from the first quarter of 2027, the TD will roll out the Smart Traffic Signals project at the junction of Gloucester Road and Great George Street near Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. Sensors of Real-time Adaptive Traffic Signal System will detect real-time vehicular and pedestrian traffic flows, and use AI to compute the most appropriate signal timings, thus dynamically allocating more crossing time for pedestrians, which is expected to reduce the maximum pedestrian waiting time by 15 to 20 seconds.
The department said that its AI-enabled anti-bot solution and dynamic identification technology in the online appointment booking system for counter services for direct issue of the Hong Kong Full Driving Licence, launched from end-June, has significantly reduced the maximum waiting time for applicants successfully entering the booking system from up to about two hours to within 45 minutes.
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Candy Kwok Wai-ying, deputy commissioner of Transport Services and Management, said the process can be shortened with the help of AI in checking the addresses of applicants.
The system can effectively identify and block automated bot scripts, and elevate system capability in identifying abnormal traffic and mitigating non-human operations, the department said.
The introduction of AI is part of a broader effort by the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to leverage the tool to enhance efficiency.
The government announced on Monday that the AI Efficacy Enhancement Team has so far facilitated and implemented the first batch of 30 Efficacy Enhancement Projects, which are being rolled out progressively from mid-2026, covering areas such as transport licenses, leisure and sports facilities, food business licenses, environmental hygiene, complaint handling, and environmental protection.
Contact the writer at atlasshao@chinadailyhk.com
