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Express Bus Arrival Information System, recognized by Patent Registration.

All express bus arrival information in South Korea is provided by Formax Network (“Formax” hereinafter) for several years now. This is because, in order to implement accurate destination (terminal) arrival guidance services, the data should be generated through FX-Traffic’s Intelligent Traffic Information System owned by Formax.
The types of data used for the express bus arrival information system are those of regular bus route, detour route, real-time road speed, road pattern speed and predicted speed, and among them, the pattern speed data includes time-of-day and days of the week speed data, and hourly speed data of special days such as legal holidays and traditional holidays. Besides, the predicted speed data provides accurate arrival information by generating future predicted speed data using prediction techniques based on real-time speed and pattern speed data.
In addition, by adding a special algorithm to the above system, Formax has recently received a patent certification from the Korean Intellectual Property Office. (patent number 10-2767694) This algorithm is a technology of adding time-consuming statistics to the existing system about predicted changes in routes and statistics, and as such, it enables to implement a high-level destination arrival guidance system.
With more than 25 years of know-hows and experiences, Formax’s high quality traffic information system service is recognized with multiple patents, and our efforts of evolving the system to increase satisfaction in express bus travel experience by accurate calculation on ETA will never stop.

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Planning a Trip to South Korea? Here’s a Tip: Don’t Use Google Maps
The Reason Why the Most Used Map in the World is Useless in Korea

The prolonged situation of COVID-19 makes it seem that travelling overseas freely isn’t something we can expect soon. But we can at least hope and make plans for when the day does come, especially now that the global vaccination rate is going up. One of the prospective popular travel destinations is South Korea, which reached its peak number of inbound tourists in 2019 just before the pandemic struck.

A lot of people who have ever been to South Korea will know that it has one of the best public transportation in the world, like the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. Visiting other popular cities outside the capital like Jeonju or Busan isn’t that much of a difficulty either, thanks to express buses and KTX, the high-speed train. Once you get there, the subway or the town buses would be enough to get you to most of the places you want to visit as well. But what isn’t as known as much is South Korea is a pretty good country for driving as well. Rental cars are available for traveling in and to rural places where public transports aren’t around as much. Since Korea has systematic national highways and city roads, you will be able to enjoy more freedom in your itinerary by taking control of your trip.

Then, you might think, that travelling in Korea should be pretty easy. Well, actually, the answer depends. If you had relied heavily on Google Maps in your daily life and for getting around in your previous travels, you would naturally use it in Korea as well. But soon enough you’ll notice a few strange things. When you want to go to a nice coffee shop nearby after you enjoyed your meal, you would find out that it is impossible to get walking directions on the app. If you rented a car during your trip in the beautiful Jeju Island and are now ready to hit the road, you would then realize that getting GPS navigation and real time traffic information isn’t available. Irritated and confused, you would look for other options. After all the hassle of what alternative apps are used most in the country and downloading them, you’d find that they do offer English service, but they aren’t as convenient and helpful compared to just using Google Maps.

So why is it that the essential, go-to app for travelling worldwide not able to offer the same useful features in South Korea?

Simply put, Google does not have direct access to Korea’s map data. Because of South Korea’s special situation of being a divided country and still technically at war with North Korea, South Korea’s government regulates exporting the nation’s geospatial data outside the country for security reasons.

Google had made several attempts to take out Korea’s geospatial data, first in 2007 and most recently in 2016. The Korean government made a final statement in November 2016 that Google’s request for full open access to Korea’s map data was denied. It was explained that Google refused the government’s offer that they reduce the map resolutions for sensitive locations, and they could not reach an agreement. Hence Google Maps in South Korea has lower quality and is unable to offer its best.

Since then, Google launched its first Google Cloud Platform region in Seoul in 2020. Some view this as a sign or hope for Google to improve their map services in Korea, since it means they can now collect local data on their own. Nothing is certain yet, but if Google does decide to get serious about renewing or upgrading map services in South Korea, let’s hope they get better map data and traffic information, so they could be fully useful in South Korea like they are in the rest of the world. If it happens, it would greatly enhance mobility for Korea’s international tourists and residents and make some major shifts in Korea’s map industry.
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The Evolution of Traffic Guidance Services : Dynamic pattern speed

“I'm going on a weekend trip with my friend, how much traffic will it be?”

“What day and what time should I leave this holiday?”

“How convenient would it be if there was a service that could answer these questions - a service that calculates the best departure time for a given destination's arrival time and predicts the congestion of certain areas and roads?”

Anyone driving in their own car would have imagined these questions at least once.

Of course, most people use navigation to check real-time traffic data on roads. However, sometimes the travel time is felt to be greatly inaccurate.

The reason for the error is that the travel time is calculated based on the current time, or traffic data with a simple fixed pattern is used. In addition, if sudden weather changes, traffic accidents or road control result in unusual traffic patterns, it will include greater errors. This phenomenon is especially noticeable when driving for a long time, and drivers are suffering from the inconvenience of being provided with routes that do not reflect the unfixed flow.

To compensate for this vulnerability, Formax network developed and patented a dynamic pattern speed.

Traffic conditions tend to repeat the same pattern by day and time. Based on this point, we create a pattern speed, identify the deviation and increasing trend between 'past pattern speed' and 'real-time speed', and utilize the method of correcting future pattern speed.

It also significantly reduces the time required for processing operations by utilizing simple algorithms. A total of 60,000 links can be calculated in about five minutes. In addition, by using big data statistical analysis to eliminate abnormal data due to factors such as weather, accidents, and holidays, it was possible to reduce errors and increase predictive performance.

With the development of this technology, it has been able to solve various problems for drivers. It is expected to greatly increase the convenience of drivers by expanding to original services such as service that predicts time spent with fixed precision, service that proposes optimal departure time, and 3D path exploration service that proposes optimal route.
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Transforming Mobility: Opportunities to Enter the Korean Market

Connected cars, which have evolved to match the era of autonomous driving, are no longer just transportation. It explores routes in real time, remotely starts cars, diagnoses vehicles on its own, and breaks down boundaries between industries through various financial and IT services.

In particular, the infotainment system, one of the many systems in the vehicle, is drawing attention. Infotainment is a system that integrates “Information,” which refers to data needed by drivers such as driving, directions, and traffic conditions, and “Entertainment”. Thanks to this, connected cars have evolved beyond simple transportation to function as a single electronic device, such as a smartphone. Through various services, drivers can enjoy more convenient and unique experiences in the vehicle.

With the rise of connected cars, interest in the Korean market is increasing. In particular, according to Businesswire's report “South Korea Connected Vehicle Market,” Korea is one of the major markets for connected cars by 2025, due to the high growth of the automobile market and strengthening local infrastructure. Those who take advantage of these opportunities first are expected to gain profitable growth through new markets in the industry.

However, there is a reason why many companies cannot easily challenge themselves to enter Korea. This is because Korea's connected car industry differs greatly from the U.S. and Europe in key areas such as laws, systems, and technology standardization guides.

(Example)

- How to invest company personnel and equipment to build connected car services in Korea
- How to operate and manage connected car systems in Korea
- How to respond to localization in Korea

These concerns must be solved before starting a connected car business in Korea. The Formax Network conducts consulting to answer these questions to help solve companies' difficulties. Consulting provides legal guidance for business licenses, map providers, mapping and investigation services, and local autonomous driving tests.

Various other preparations are also needed in order to carry out business in Korea. If you are interested in entering the connected car market in Korea, you can get information by clicking the link below.

The number of functions consumers want for cars is increasing, and the level of technology to meet them is increasing. As a result, connected cars are developing faster than ever and the potential to generate revenue is steadily increasing across the industry. What matters is that you must act quickly. Beyond realizing the possibility, if you are ready to meet customer expectations and take the opportunity, you will be able to achieve results before others.
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Express buses in Korea offer 'this' just like subways and trains...

How many passengers does a Korean express bus transport in a year? As of 2019, there were 32 million, which is well over 30 million each year. (Source: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) We have selected three strengths of Korean express buses that continue to board despite the development of high-speed rail and air means.

First, it's a dense domestic intercity route. It is differentiated from the KTX (Korea Train eXpress) that connects only major cities.

Second, the express bus terminal is located in the center of the city and has good accessibility. Considering the distance traveled to the house, it often saves time compared to the station.

Last, it has a transfer system. Even if you are not traveling between cities, you can transfer to any place you want by using an intermediate rest stop.

In fact, there was one thing to be desired about the express bus. The exact arrival time of the bus was not known. But this year, this inconvenience has been resolved. This is because express buses, like trains and subways, can predict their expected arrival time. This is thanks to the estimated arrival time information service completed by the Formax Network.

How can we predict the arrival time of a bus running on a road that changes every minute? This is because not only real-time traffic data at the present time, but also predicted traffic data are utilized. In this predicted traffic data, pattern data that finds regular patterns by giving statistics and analyzing data by day and hour is utilized. In particular, the accuracy has been increased by adding the know-how of the Formax network in the data processing process.

Thanks to this, citizens can receive hourly-updated arrival time information not only on the in-flight monitor, but also through the reservation mobile application and kiosks throughout the terminal. Also, if a new section occurs, there is no need to worry. Traffic data experts identify route maps and bus routes by section and quickly reflect them within two days.

The reason for such a quick update is that a route and route creation tool based on an electronic map (GIS). Also, the good thing about the electronic map-based route creation tool is that it can calculate the arrival time of the bus even if it accidentally deviates from the route or if it detours.
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Mercedes-Benz Korea rolls out 2021 The new S-Class with more evolved traffic information

In April, the 7th-generation full-change model of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, “The New Mercedes-Benz S-Class,” became explosively popular with 689 units sold in four days as soon as it was released in Korea. Korea has already been known as the country that sells the most S-class after the United States and China. In the case of all Mercedes S-class, 727 units were sold last month even at a high price of over 100 million won, ranking 4th out of the total sales of imported cars.(Source: KAIDA)

Special cars provide special traffic information services. It is traffic information of MBC TPEG that enhances the competitiveness of Mercedes Benz new S-Class.

The traffic information of MBC TPEG is applied to the new Mercedes, providing accurate real-time traffic information in Korea. Through congestion traffic information (CTT: Congestion Travel Time), fast routes can be guided in real time. In addition, it provides gas station oil price information, weather information, and traffic disorder information to facilitate convenient driving.

There was a hidden merit in receiving such useful information: Formax Network. Formax Network operates MBC TPEG and also provides it as a turnkey solution for connected car service.In addition, The New S-Class has evolved more intelligently through omnidirectional upgrades, and will provide a high-level driving experience through unrivaled advanced technology.

Learn more about FX-TPEG
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What is this year's traffic data a global location technology company has been paying attention to? The answer is...

TomTom, a global location platform company, doesn’t only sell maps. Representatively, it provides traffic and travel information service helping fast and safe driving. For this, “real-time traffic information”, which shows road conditions and congestion levels for each country, is the key.

As a global company, TomTom provides various services using traffic data of 57 countries. The cities for which TomTom has data are not only in Europe, but also in the United States and Asia, with a total of 416 locations. (As of 2020)

In 2021, South Korea’s Formax Network became TomTom’s partner of transportation data supply. It has been years since the first discussion on transportation took place in the wake of Korea’s Pyeongchang Olympics. Until now, the two companies have been steadily discussing about technologies such as data quality, linkage method, and regional scope.

Based on real-time traffic data provided by the Formax network, TomTom is expected to show various traffic services in Korea. We expect the technology and quality management of both companies will be added to satisfy many Korean drivers.

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